Question

a scale drawing of a bus has a scale of 1/2 inch to 5 feet. If the length of the school bus is 4 1/2 inches on the scale drawing, what is the actual length of thus bus? Explain or show your reasoning.

Answer 1

Let x feet be the actual length of the school bus. You know that in a scale drawing

$\dfrac{1}{2} \text{ inch } - 5 \text{ feet},$

then

$4\dfrac{1}{2} \text{ inch } - x \text{ feet}.$

Write a proportion:

$\dfrac{\frac{1}{2}}{4\frac{1}{2}}=\dfrac{5}{x}\Rightarrow x=\dfrac{5\cdot 4\frac{1}{2}}{\frac{1}{2}}=\dfrac{5\cdot \frac{9}{2}}{\frac{1}{2}}=\dfrac{\frac{45}{2}}{\frac{1}{2}}=\dfrac{45}{2}\cdot \dfrac{2}{1}=45\text{ feet.}$

Answer: the actual length of the school bus is 45 feet.

Answer 2

Answer:

45 Feet

Step-by-step explanation:

Let actual length of the school bus = $a$

Now for the scale drawing

$\dfrac{1}{2} \text{ inch } - 5 \text{ feet}$

and $4\dfrac{1}{2} \text{ inch } - x \text{ feet}$

The proportion will be

$\dfrac{5}{x} = \dfrac{\frac{1}{2}}{4\frac{1}{2}}\\x = \dfrac{4\frac{1}{2}\cdot5}{\frac{1}{2}}\\x = \dfrac{\frac{9}{2}\cdot5}{\frac{1}{2}}\\x = \dfrac{\frac{45}{2}}{\frac{1}{2}}\\x = \dfrac{45}{2}\cdot \dfrac{2}{1}\\x = 45\text$

∴Length of the bus is 45 feet