High School

The Wright Flyer was the first successful powered aircraft. A model was made to display in a museum with a length of 35 cm and a wingspan of about 66.9 cm. The length of the actual plane was 21 ft 1 in., and the height was 2.74 m.

Compare the length, height, and wingspan of the model to the actual plane, and explain why any errors may occur.

Answer :

We are given that:



Model [length = 35 cm; wingspan = 66.9 cm; height = ?]



Actual [length = 21 ft 1 in = 6.43 m; height = 2.74 m;
wingspan = ?]





We can solve for the height of the model plane using the
given values of the actual plane and by ratio and proportion:



35 cm / height model = 6.43 m / 2.74 m



height model = 14.9 cm





We can also solve for the wingspan of the actual plane:



35 cm / 66.9 cm = 6.43 m / wingspan actual



wingspan actual = 12.30 m





So we can see that the model is:



6.43 m (100 cm / m) / 35 cm = 18.37



18.37 times smaller than the actual plane





Errors can occur in the calculation since we were using
the measurements of the model plane to calculate for the wingspan of the
actual. It should be the other way around, the actual plane should be the one
being the reference.

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