The area of a square floor on a scale drawing is 36 square centimeters, and the scale drawing is 1 centimeter:4 ft. What is the area of the actual floor? What is the ratio of the area in the drawing to the actual area?
Because the area in the drawing is 36 cm^2, one side length is 6 cm. On the actual floor, this equates to 24 ft. This means the area of the floor in real life is 576 square feet.
Therefore the ratio is 36 square centimetres : 576 square feet.
This is the same as 1 square centimetre : 16 square feet.
