To interpret a 1:150 scale drawing, it’s important to understand that 1 unit on the drawing corresponds to 150 units in real life.

When you encounter a 1:150 scale drawing, it indicates that each measurement on the drawing is 150 times smaller than the actual size. For instance, if a wall measures $2 \, \text{cm}$ on the drawing, its real-life length would be calculated as:

This scaling technique allows for large objects, such as buildings or landscapes, to be represented on a manageable piece of paper.

To work with this scale effectively, you can use a ruler to measure distances on the drawing. Then, multiply these measurements by $150$ to determine the real-world size. Conversely, if you know the actual size and wish to find out how it would appear on the drawing, you would divide the real-world measurement by $150$. For example, if a garden is $30 \, \text{m}$ long in reality, its representation on the drawing would be:

Understanding scale drawings is essential in fields such as architecture, engineering, and geography, where accurate representations of large objects are vital. This knowledge allows professionals to effectively plan and visualize their projects. For GCSE Maths, mastering this concept will help you tackle problems related to scale factors, ratios, and proportional reasoning, which are fundamental topics in the curriculum.