Scaling Minis

In Year 4 we have been looking at scaling up images and models.

We looked at these 2 Lego minis.

We thought about mathematical questions.
For example:
How many times larger is the big model than the smaller one?
How long is the small model?
How long is the big model?
What is the difference between the lengths of the two models?
How many small Lego minis equal the same length as one large Lego mini?

Here are some of our estimates of the lengths of the 2 cars:

The red writing is the actual length of each car.

We calculated that the smaller car is approximately 1/3 the scale of the larger car.

Next we wondered how this would compare to a real mini.  So Miss Whittaker let us use hers!

First we estimated the length of a real mini

Then we measured it.
We found out that Miss Whittaker's mini is 3.6m (360cm) long.
That's about 51 times longer than the small Lego mini!

We then used this information to help calculate what the width of Miss Whittaker's mini should be. We measured the small mini and it has a width of 3cm.  We multiplied this by 51 (using the same scale).  We think that the width of Miss Whittaker's mini is 153cm.
We are waiting to see if we are right!