Understanding Map Scale
A Grade 5 social studies worksheet focusing on understanding and using map scales to calculate real-world distances.
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Understanding Map Scale
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Read each question carefully and answer to the best of your ability. Use your knowledge of map scales to solve the problems.
1. What does a map scale help you determine?
The color of the land
The actual distance between two places
The direction of north
The type of vegetation
2. If a map scale says 1 inch = 10 miles, how many inches on the map would represent 30 miles in real life?
1 inch
3 inches
10 inches
30 inches
3. A map scale tells us the ratio between a distance on the map and the actual on the ground.
4. If a map has a scale of 1:1,000, it means that one unit on the map represents units in the real world.
5. A map shows a distance of 2 centimeters between your house and the school. If the map scale is 1 cm = 500 meters, what is the actual distance in meters between your house and the school?
6. Explain why it is important to know how to use a map scale when planning a trip.
7. Look at the ruler image. If this ruler represents a map scale where 1 cm = 2 km, what would 5 cm on the ruler represent in real distance?