🏗️✨ Architect Challenge ✨🏗️

You are an architect designing a scale drawing of a new building for your city! 🏢📐

Real buildings are too large to fit on paper, so architects use scale drawings to shrink them proportionally.
Your job is to calculate the correct scale factor and drawing lengths so your design is accurate.

Learn It. Try It. Check It.

🏢 Example Walkthrough

Step 1: An architect makes a scale drawing where 2 cm on the drawing represents 50 m on the actual building.

Scale Factor = Length on scale drawing / Length of actual building
Scale Factor = 2 / 50 = 0.04 cm/m

Step 2: The actual building is 80 m wide.

Drawing Length = scale factor · length of actual building
Drawing Length = 0.04 · 80 = 3.2 cm

✨ Now try your own building measurements below.

Choose or Change the Building Measurements

m

📋 What goes in each box?

Length on scale drawing: Enter a measurement from your small drawing or scale model.

Length of actual building: Enter the real measurement of the actual building for the same side.

Another actual building dimension: Enter a different real measurement that you want to shrink for your scale drawing.

🧮 Step 1: Find the Scale Factor

What to do

Scale Factor = length on scale drawing / length of actual

Use the numbers you entered above. Divide the length on the scale drawing by the length of the actual building. Round your answer to 2 decimal places.

cm/m

📏 Step 2: Find the Drawing Length

What to do

Drawing length = actual dimension × scale factor

Use the actual building dimension you entered above. Multiply it by your scale factor. Round your answer to 2 decimal places.

cm

🌎 Final Architect Challenge

Now use real map data to design your own scale drawing!

  1. Go to ArcGIS Scene Viewer.
  2. Enter the address of your school.
  3. Use the tools to measure actual lengths of the school building.
  4. Choose a scale factor that will make the building fit on your paper.
  5. Use your scale factor to draw a careful scale drawing.

📐 Architect Tip: The trick is choosing a scale factor small enough so the whole building fits on your paper!