Question 26·Medium·Ratios, Rates, Proportional Relationships, and Units
A blueprint is drawn so that inch represents 3 feet of the actual building. On the blueprint, the length of a certain hallway is inches.
What is the actual length of the hallway, in feet, in terms of ?
For scale and blueprint questions, first rewrite the scale as a clear ratio with units (e.g., inches : feet), then convert it to a unit rate like “feet per inch” by dividing or scaling appropriately. Once you know the real-life measure for 1 drawing unit, multiply that unit rate by the given drawing length (here, inches) to get the expression for the actual length; avoid guessing and always track units to prevent common errors.
Hints
Rewrite the scale with units
Write the information as " inch on the blueprint represents 3 feet in real life." Keep track of which number is inches and which is feet.
Find the number of feet per inch
If inch represents 3 feet, how many groups of inch are in 1 inch, and how does that change the number of feet?
Use the unit rate with x inches
Once you know how many feet 1 inch represents, multiply that by to find how many feet inches represents.
Desmos Guide
Express the relationship as feet per inch
In Desmos, type 3 / (1/4) to compute how many feet correspond to 1 inch on the blueprint. Note the numerical result; this is the number of feet per inch.
Generalize to x inches
Now type (3 / (1/4)) * x in Desmos. The coefficient of in this expression is the number of feet represented by each inch, so the whole expression gives the actual hallway length in feet in terms of .
Step-by-step Explanation
Understand the scale
The blueprint uses the scale: inch on the drawing represents feet in real life.
So the ratio is
Find how many feet 1 inch represents
We want the number of feet per 1 inch on the blueprint.
If inch feet, then 1 inch is 4 times as long as inch, so it represents 4 times as many feet:
So, 1 inch on the blueprint represents 12 feet in real life.
Scale up to x inches
Now the hallway is inches long on the blueprint.
Since each 1 inch represents 12 feet, inches will represent groups of 12 feet:
So, the actual length of the hallway, in feet, is .