What is a definition of a scale on a graph

A25- foot ladder leans against a building and reaches a point of 23.5 feet above the ground .find the angle that the ladder makes with the building

You are standing next to a really big circular lake. you want to measure the diameter of the lake, but you don't want to have to swim across with a measuring tape! you decide to walk around the perimeter of the lake and measure its circumference, and find that it's 400\pi\text{ m}400? m. what is the diameter dd of the lake?

In which direction does the left side of the graph of this function point? f(x) = 3x3 - x2 + 4x - 2