its just the form of counting and not necessarily the different number
I believe it's a rational number, since it's an integer.
Because the area in the drawing is 36 cm^2, one side length is 6 cm.
On the actual floor, this equates to 24 ft.
This means the area of the floor in real life is 576 square feet.
Therefore the ratio is 36 square centimetres : 576 square feet.
This is the same as 1 square centimetre : 16 square feet.
