MHB [ASK] Minimum Dimension of a Map

[Monoxdifly]

The farthest distance of two places in an area is 200 km. If someone wants to make a map of that area on a 1 m × 1 m paper, the possible scale to make it is ...
a. 1 : 210
b. 1 : 2.100
c. 1 : 21.000
d. 1 : 210.000

Can you help? The 200 and 210 makes me think that the distance on map won't be an integer.

 

[Opalg]

The farthest distance of two places in an area is 200 km. If someone wants to make a map of that area on a 1 m × 1 m paper, the possible scale to make it is ...
a. 1 : 210
b. 1 : 2.100
c. 1 : 21.000
d. 1 : 210.000

Can you help? The 200 and 210 makes me think that the distance on map won't be an integer.

The reason for using 210 rather than 200 is that you would not want the two places to be at the very edges of the map. You want to leave a bit of space on each side of the two places on the map. So you should choose a scale such that 1 m on the map represents 210 km on the ground. The scale of the map should therefore be 1 m : 210 km. Putting everything in terms of metres, that is 1 m : 210,000 m.

 

[Monoxdifly]

Ah, I see. Thanks, Opalg!