Scale - GCSE Maths Definition
Reviewed by: Dan Finlay
Published
As far as GCSE Mathematics is concerned, scale refers to the relationship between the size of an object, line or similar feature on a map, model, or drawing and its actual size in real-life.
A scale could be expressed in words and units, for example, "2 cm represents 5 km".
To make things convenient, units are not used in scales, so anyone using the scale would be free to use whichever units they prefer.
For example,
instead of "2 cm represents 5 km" we would convert this to 2 cm represents 500 000 cm
and then w rite the scale as a ratio, so "2 cm represents 500 000 cm" would become 2:500 000
finally to make things even simpler, we would write the scale as a unit ratio, 1:250 000
Understanding scale helps us to interpret and use maps, plans, and diagrams, whilst allowing us to represent relatively large items (e.g. the plan of a house) in a small space (e.g. an A4 sheet of paper).
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