What does it mean when a line is drawn to scale?

Question

What does it mean when a line is drawn to scale?

Answer 1

The ratios are the same as if it was drawn actual size. If you know the ratio, you can multiply the line by the ratio to get the actual size. So on a scale map, it means that the distance between the cities is shown proportional to the actual distance between the cities.

Answer 2

This means that the line that you see is exactly the same size and shape as the line it is suppose to represent. it is not shrunken or enlarged or changed.

Answer 3

It means that you can determine the length of the actual line that the drawn line represents. For example, maps are drawn to scale. If a road is shown as 10" long, and the scale bar on the map indicated that 1" = 2 miles, then the road is 20 miles long. If the map was not "to scale" then no real-world distances could be determined.

Answer 4

Scale enables the viewer of a map to determine the size of the area portrayed in the map.  1:25,000 means 1 unit represents 25,000 units on the map, or 1 inch can represent 25,000 inches.

Answer 5

The placement and severity of curves and angles, and the distances from one feature to the next, are drawn so that the measurements are all proportional to whatever that line is representing in real life - so if you enlarge the line to full scale it will match the real object.

A subway system map is an example of lines NOT drawn to scale - usually the twists and curves are evened out and distances either lengthened or shortened to provide a simple-looking schematic.

Think of the difference between a photograph (to scale) and a painting (not necessarily to scale)