Question

You originally draw a design for an art contest on a 2 inch by 5 inch card. The second phrase of the contest requires the drawing to be transferred to an 8.5 inch by 11 inch standard sheet of paper and utilize as much of the space on the paper as possible. You determine the largest size one of the dimensions of your drawing can be is 10.5 inches. What is the length of the other dimension if two drawings are similar? Type your exact answer in the blank without the units and round to the nearest tenth.

Answer 1

4.2.
If the 2 inch side was scaled to 10.5 inches the 5 inch side would be scaled by 10.5/2 = 5.25, so would be 25.125 inches which is too big.

So the 10.5 inches is the 5 inch side on the original, and so it 10.5/5 = 2.1 times bigger.

Therefore the smaller side would be 2*2.1/= 4.2 inches.