Question

A desk is 2 meters long and 1 meter wide. The desk needs to be represented in a scale drawing of an office that uses a scale of 1 centimeter = 0.5 meter. What are the dimensions of the desk in the drawing?

Answer 1

Thus, the dimensions of the desk in the drawing are 4 cm long and 2 cm wide.

Explanation:

Scaling

The scale factor established to represent a desk 2 meters long and 1 meter wide is:

1 centimeter = 0.5 meter

We need to convert the real dimensions to the scaled dimensions. To complete the task, it's a good idea to multiply the real dimensions by the ratio:

`\displaystyle (1\ cm)/(0.5\ m)`

to get the scaled dimensions.

The length of 2 meters is scaled to:

`\displaystyle 2\ m(1\ cm)/(0.5\ m)=4\ cm`

And the width of 1 meter is scaled to:

\displaystyle 1\ m\frac{1\ cm}{0.5\ m}=2 cm

Thus, the dimensions of the desk in the drawing are 4 cm long and 2 cm wide.