Question

Polygon Q is a scaled copy of polygon P using a scale factor of 1/2. Polygon Q's area is what fraction of Polygon P's area.

Answer 1

Answer: Polygon Q's area is 1/4 of Polygon P's area

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Explanation:

Imagine we had a square with side length 8. The area of this square is 8*8 = 64.

Now let's reduce each side of the square by the scale factor 1/2. So each new side is 8*(1/2) = 4. The area of this smaller square is 4*4 = 16.

Comparing the new area (16) to the old one (64), we see that the new area is 16/64 = 1/4 of the old area.

In other words,

new smaller area = (1/4)*(old larger area)

So this is one example to see why (1/2)*(1/2) = 1/4 is the area scale factor based on the linear scale factor of 1/2. In short, (1/2)^2 = 1/4. Whatever the original scale factor is, square it and you'll get the area scale factor.