Question

Jerome won a school competition to design a mural for the cafeteria wall. Jerome’s scale drawing was 12 inches wide and 9 inches tall. The actual mural will be 20 feet wide. How tall will the actual mural be, in feet?

Answer 1

The actual mural will be 15 feet tall.

To find the height of the mural, we first need to find the scale by dividing Jerome's scale drawing's measurements from the mural's measurements.

Before we do that, we need to make sure our units are the same. Jerome's scale drawing is measured in inches, and the mural is measured in feet. To keep the numbers whole, I'm going to convert the mural's width from feet to inches by multiplying it by 12.

20 × 12 = 240

Now that our units are the same, we can divide Jerome's scale drawing's width from the mural's width to find the scale.

240 ÷ 12 = 20 

The scale of Jerome's scale drawing to the mural is 1:20. This means that the mural's measurements are 20 times Jerome's scale drawing.

Now, to find the height, or how tall the actual mural will be, you multiply the height of Jerome's scale drawing, 9 inches, by the scale, 20.

9 × 20 = 180 inches

Since the question is asking how tall the mural will be in feet, you divide 12 from 180 to find the number of feet in 180 inches.

180 ÷ 12 = 15 feet

The actual mural will be 15 feet tall.