Proportion relationship

Question

A blueprint is drawn so that 2cm represents 3 feet of the new house. If the drawing of the kitchen is 7 cm long, how long is the actual kitchen.

Answer 1

Hi Tom. Lets break this problem down into steps.

Step 1: Set up equivalent ratios, or a proportion to represent the situation

we will let x represent the actual length of the kitchen

2 cm/3 feet = 7 cm/ x feet

Step 2: Solve the proportion for x.

2 cm/ 3 feet = 7 cm/ x feet

2x = 21 feet; cross multiplied (numerator 1 x denominator 2 = numerator 2 x denominator 1)

2/2 x = 21/2 feet; divided by 2 on both sides of the equation to obtain the value of x

x = 10.5 feet

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