Scales

A scale model or diagram represents a specific object that is life-size. The scale model or diagram can be one half the size of the actual object or even one hundredth the size of the life-sized object. Scales are used when making a model of a building, a house, a playground and other objects. Scales are also used when someone wants to make a very small object bigger, just like a model or a diagram of a very small bug. Scales are usually expressed with two numbers with a colon between them or two numbers with the word “to” between them. For example, on a world globe there is a scale. The scale might say something like this: one centimetre is equal to 500 kilometres. This scale can be expressed like this: 1cm:500km or like this: 1cm to 500km.






Let’s say you found a doll that measures 12 centimetres tall and you want to find out how much one centimetre of that doll would stand up to yourself. (Let’s say you are 160 centimetres tall.) Take 12 cm and 160 cm and turn it into a fraction with 12 cm as the numerator and 160 cm as the denominator. And next to it, make another fraction with 1cm over x. Solve the proportion.