Scale

Pronunciation: /skeɪl/ Explain

1. The scale of a number line or a graph states the interval represented by tic marks on the graph.

   In the number line in figure 1, the scale is 1. This is because each tic mark to the right represents one more than the previous tic mark.

   Figure 1: Number line from -10 to 10 by ones.

   The scale for the number line in figure 2 is 1/10 because the value of the tic marks increase by 1/10 for each tic mark to the right.

   Figure 2: Number line from -1 to 1 by tenths.

2. To scale a geometric figure is to change the size of the figure without changing any other features. In pure mathematics, this is called dilation. The scale factor is called the dilation ratio.

References

1. McAdams, David E.. All Math Words Dictionary, scale. 2nd Classroom edition 20150108-4799968. pg 160. Life is a Story Problem LLC. January 8, 2015. Buy the book

More Information

• McAdams, David E.. Dilation. allmathwords.org. All Math Words Encyclopedia. Life is a Story Problem LLC. 2/18/2010. https://www.allmathwords.org/Dilation.

Cite this article as:

McAdams, David E. Scale. 5/3/2019. All Math Words Encyclopedia. Life is a Story Problem LLC. https://www.allmathwords.org/en/s/scale.html.

Image Credits

• All images and manipulatives are by David McAdams unless otherwise stated. All images by David McAdams are Copyright © Life is a Story Problem LLC and are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Revision History

5/3/2019: Changed equations and expressions to new format. (McAdams, David E.)
3/29/2019: Changed 'scale ratio' to 'scale factor'. (McAdams, David E.)
12/21/2018: Reviewed and corrected IPA pronunication. (McAdams, David E.)
12/5/2018: Removed broken links, updated license, implemented new markup. (McAdams, David E.)
8/7/2018: Changed vocabulary links to WORDLINK format. (McAdams, David E.)
12/31/2008: Added 'More Information'. (McAdams, David E.)
7/12/2007: Initial version. (McAdams, David E.)