One of your teacher colleagues needs some help. She decided to replicate a typical United States Geological Survey quadrangle scale map of the playground and surrounding woods on a regular sized piece of paper. These USGS maps have a scale of 1 / 24,000. She needs your help estimating the size of some of the key features of the school playground on the map itself.

She asked you to figure out the length of the playground on the map in inches. To do this, you must figure out a) the playground dimensions and b) how much distance is represented by an inch on a 1 / 24,000 scale map. Follow these steps:

The playground is 250 x 250 ft.
Convert one of the playground lengths to inches. So, 250 ft x 12 inches / ft = Z inches.
Recall 1 / 24,000 scale means 1 inch on the map = 24,000 inches in reality.
Determine the ratio of playground to map in inches.
Solve the ratio to determine the length the playground will be on the map in inches.
So, solve for x where Z inches / 24,000 inches = x inches on the map.