Use the image to answer the question.
An illustration shows two triangles positioned differently. The first triangle has its longest side along the baseline. The second triangle has its longest side in the upper left, and the triangle is tilted upward to the right. The first triangle has a base of 18 inches and sides as 10 inches and 15 inches. The second triangle shows three sides as 30 inches, 36 inches, and 20 inches.
Randee draws these two triangles with lengths given in centimeters. What scale factor does she use to create the copy on the right from the original on the left?
Since the triangles in the image are similar, we can determine the scale factor by comparing the lengths of corresponding sides.
For the first triangle, the longest side (15 inches) corresponds to the side labeled 36 inches in the second triangle.
Therefore, the scale factor is 15 inches/36 inches = 5/12.
Since we are converting from inches to centimeters, we need to convert the scale factor to centimeters:
Scale factor = (5/12) * 2.54 cm/inch
= 2.1167 cm/inch
Therefore, Randee uses a scale factor of approximately 2.1167 cm/inch to create the copy of the triangle on the right from the original triangle on the left.