Question

In a diagram of a landscape plan, the scale is 1cm= 10ft. In the diagram, the trees are 4.4 centimeters apart. How far apart should the actual trees be planted?

Answer 1

Scale is just a proportion, in this case:
\[\frac{10 \text{ft}}{1 \text{cm}}\]Multiply that by your measurement on the drawing to get the real-life distance:
\[\frac{10 \text{ft}}{1 \text{cm}}*4.4\text{cm} = \]Your answer will be in \(\text{ft}\) as the other units cancel. It is a good practice to use the units while doing the computation (as I've done here) because it helps you catch errors such as having the conversion ratio backward.