scale

A scale is a ratio that exists between a model or diagram and the real thing.

Example 1

A map used a scale of 1 : 200.

This means that 1cm on the map is equal to 200cm (2m) in real life.

Example 2

On a piece of paper, a building was drawn with a length of 20cm, but in real life, the building is 20m.

The scale would be 1cm : 1m

A scale diagram is a drawing of an object that is NOT the size of the object in real life.

It is usually drawn a lot smaller to fit on to paper or a computer screen.

Example

The square below is a scale diagram. The length of each side is 5 metres.

(if you were to draw the square accurately, 5 metres is about 5 very large steps, which would not fit on this computer screen).