Scale drawings and map

Question

A map of a park is drawn using a scale of 1:500. on the map the area of the pond is 1cm² . find in cm² the actual area of the pond.

 

Answer 1

PLZ be very careful with map scales.  They are linear.  That means 1 cm on the map = 500 cm in real life.

 

Thus, a 1 cm * 1 cm square, for example, is 500 cm * 500 cm in real life.  The pond may not be a square, but we are given the area in cm².

 

Therefore, if a pond has an area of 1 cm² on the map, it will have an area of 250,000 cm² in reality.  Almost everyone would say that a scale of 1:500 would translate 1 cm into 5 m.  This makes the area of the pond 25 square meters.

Answer 2

Since the scale is  1:500

 

the actual area = 1*500

 

= 500 cm^2