Scale Problems

Maps are often compared according to their scales. For example, small-scale maps result when the map distance is small relative to ground distance. Since map distance is always stated in the numerator of the representative fraction (RF) as 1, it follows that the smaller the denominator (the closer to a 1 to 1 ratio), the larger the scale will be. Thus, a 1:20,000 map has a larger scale than a 1:40,000 map (remember that the RF is a fraction, and 1/2 is larger than 1/4).

Note: 12 inches = 1 foot 5280 feet = 1 mile 100,000 cm = 1 km 1.

Simple Scale Manipulation Fill in the blanks, round to 2 decimal places for English and Metric forms:

English Verbal Metric Verbal RF Example:

Map “A” 1 inch represents 1.00 miles 1 cm represents 0.63 km 1:63,360

Map “B” 1 inch represents __.__ miles 1 cm represents __.__ km 1:50,000

Map “C” 1 inch represents __.__ miles 1 cm represents 40.0 km 1:____,___

Map “D” 1 inch represents 5.0 miles 1 cm represents __.__ km 1:____,___

Map “E” 1 inch represents __.__ miles 1 cm represents __.__ km 1:250,000

Map “F” 1 inch represents __.__ miles 1 cm represents 2.0 km 1:____,___