Final answer:
To blow up the poster as much as possible while maintaining the ratio of the sides, use the scale factor. The scale factor is found by dividing the dimensions of the larger object by the dimensions of the smaller object. To determine the largest possible poster, multiply the scale factor by the dimensions of the smaller poster.
Step-by-step explanation:
To blow up the poster as much as possible while maintaining the ratio of the sides, we can use the scale factor. The scale factor is found by dividing the dimensions of the larger object by the dimensions of the smaller object. In this case, the scale factor is 12 feet / 8.5 inches = 144 inches / 8.5 inches. To determine the length and width of the largest possible poster, we can multiply the scale factor by the dimensions of the smaller poster. The length of the larger poster is 144 inches * 8.5 inches = 1224 inches, and the width of the larger poster is 144 inches * 11 inches = 1584 inches.
The scale is the ratio of the dimensions of the larger object to the dimensions of the smaller object. In this case, the scale is 144 inches : 8.5 inches, which can be simplified to 16 : 1.