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A scale is essentially a different size, but with a equal proportions to the original. For example, if Texas is 790 miles long and 660 miles wide, which is about right, then a scaled down map of Texas (say 1 mile = 1 inch) then the map of Texas would be 790 inches long and 660 inches wide. There is a wide variety of scales. Another map scale could be 1 mile = 2 cm. Then Texas would be 1580 cm long and 1320 cm wide. In this case, the numbers were doubled, but the image is much smaller, because the units are now smaller.

If something is not drawn to scale, then that means the person drawing a diagram did not take into account the actual length and width and height of an object. The picture will likely look similar to the actual dimensions and shape of the object, but it isn't a "scaled down" version.

Things can also be scaled up, say if you were looking at a picture of cell and it's components, the image would have to be much bigger than the actual cell because of the original size. A microscope is used to scale up an object, say by 10X, 40X, or 100X, making it 10, 40, or 100 times bigger.

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13y ago

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