If a blueprint is drawn at a scale of 1/8" equals 1 foot and you measure 5 inches for vertical pipe, how many feet of pipe do you require?

To determine the actual length of the pipe required based on the blueprint measurement, it’s important to understand how to interpret scales on blueprints. In this scenario, the scale indicates that 1/8 inch on the blueprint is equivalent to 1 foot in real life.

First, you need to convert the blueprint measurement of the vertical pipe from inches to the scale equivalent in feet. Since the blueprint measurement indicates 5 inches of pipe, you can calculate the number of eighths of an inch in that measurement. There are 8 eighths in 1 inch, so:

5 inches = 5 × 8 = 40 eighths

Now that you know the total number of eighths, you can find the corresponding length in feet by recognizing that each set of 8 eighths on the blueprint represents 1 foot in real life. Thus, you can divide 40 by 8:

40 eighths ÷ 8 = 5 feet

To find how many feet of pipe you need, note that you are now translating the scale accurately. Since 1/8 inch corresponds to 1 foot, to find the total length of actual pipe needed, multiply the number of inches you measured (5) by the scale conversion factor