What is scale?

What around your house has been made “to scale”? Toys! Unfortunately, Lightning McQueen, Lofty, Percy, James, and Thomas, don’t exist in the real world!

The model car is in true proportion to the life-size object that it represents.

Therefore, map scale is: the relationship between the distance on a map and the actual distance on the earth’s surface.

Small Scale vs. Large Scale Medium Scale Large Scale

Types of map Scales Direct Statement or Verbal Scale-uses words to describe the relationship between a distance on a map and the distance on the earth’s surface. Example: 1cm to 10 km If you measured 3cm on the map, how far would this be on the earth’s surface? 30km!

Line Scale-is like a special kind of ruler that is divided into distance units example

Representative Fraction Scale-a scale where the fraction is a ratio. Example: 1:50 000 -the first term is always a one -it represents the distance on the map and is the same unit as the second term of the ratio -the second term represents the distance on the earth’s surface -it is the same unit of measurement as the first term of the ratio. 1 cm 50 000 cm 2cm 100 000 cm 1000 m 1 km 1 timbit 50 000 timbits 1 Smartie 50 000 Smarties