- What is a scale?
- Scale in technical drawing
- Scale in geography
- Scale in physics
- Economy of scale
- Musical scale
We explain what a scale is and how it is used in technical drawing, physics and geography. In addition, the musical scale and the economy of scale.
What is a scale?
Scale is a term that designates a multitude of different things. The word comes at the same time from Latin scala ("Ladder") and from the Greek skála ("Port"), two meanings that are still at the bottom of their modern meanings, within disciplines as different as physical, the geography and the music.
In effect, a ladder is a short staircase or a place to dock ships or planes, according to the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy. However, its most relevant meaning is an "ordered succession of different values of the same quality."
In certain disciplines a scale is a way of organizing certain information hierarchically, following a specific order. For example:
- The color value scale organizes the colors from one side of the spectrum to the other.
- The scale of a Map represents the conversion of distances from largest (actual size) to smallest (size figured on the map or graph).
- The musical scale orders musical notes according to their nature.
The same occurs in other specific fields, which we will see separately below.
Scale in technical drawing
At technical drawing and other forms of illustration and graphic representation, the scale of representation is a key concept: it is the necessary equivalence between drawing and reality.
Thanks to it, the represented objects retain their proportions, that is, so that the drawing does not distort the shape of the original object, or the plane does not distort the real distances between one thing and the other.
The scales of representation are determined by the equation:
Scale = drawing size / actual size
So they are expressed as a division ratio, in terms of X / Y or X: Y, meaning that X centimeters of the drawing correspond to Y real centimeters, which allows us to elaborate a conversion factor that guarantees the fidelity of the He drew. Thus, a 1/500 scale plan will represent 500 real centimeters in 1 centimeter, that is, five meters.
These scales can be of two types: reduction and enlargement, depending on whether the exercise of representation they do tends towards the former or the latter. Thus, a scale of 1 / 50,000 is a scale that reduces 50,000 cm to 1, while a 2/1 scale increases each real centimeter by 2.
Scale in geography
The scale in cartography allows representing large distances in a few centimeters.In geography, specially in mapping, the scale is a fundamental concept for the representation of the space and of the proportion. In the maps, the plans, the designs or the diagrams, the real size of things would be impossible to represent without following certain conventions, similar to those of the previous case.
Thus, when representing a building on an urban map, for example, it will be essential to use a scale, expressed in the same previous terms: X: Y, in which X will be the figurative size, represented by the number 1, and Y will be the actual size of the object.
Thus, for example, 1: 1 would be the real scale (which is impossible on a map), that is, the object in its real proportions, since each 1 real centimeter is equivalent to 1 figurative centimeter; but 1: 500 would mean that each figured centimeter represents 500 centimeters of the real object; and 5: 1000 would mean that every 5 figured centimeters equals 1000 reais.
The proportion of the scale is usually noted on cartographic maps somewhere, to know how many kilometers each centimeter of the map equals, and we can understand distances, sizes and proportions. These scales are regulated, standardized and universalized according to agreements professionals in the matter.
Scale in physics
In his attempt to explain the natural phenomenaTo measure and represent its results, physics requires a specific scale. Thus, there are scales to measure the temperature (Celsius, Fahrenheit, Kelvin), seismological scales (Richter, Mercalli, etc.), and equivalents for Pressure, frequency, voltage, radioactivity, etc.
These scales are known as scales of measurement, and can be of various types, depending on the units used: logarithmic, hexadecimal, etc.
Economy of scale
The term "Economy of scale" has to do indirectly with the concepts that we have seen before, since it refers to the situation of a business or organization which reduces your production costs the greater the quantity of product manufactured, the higher the profit per finished unit is obtained.
This situation usually occurs when there is raw material accumulated and usable, or when the business buys more facilities, since the investment in machinery it is offset by an increase in production.
In these situations, the higher the production, the lower the cost unit of product. This is where the scale effect occurs: in which a criterion similar to that of representation scales is applied to this type of calculation:
Unit cost = Machine cost / number of products manufactured.
Economies of scale usually last up to a limit, which is when the company reaches a certain size and its cost starts to become more expensive. management, administratively and bureaucratically speaking.
Musical scale
For its part, the musical scale is nothing more than the succession of the sounds musical instruments (known as notes), within a limited set, from which music or a melody can be made.
Thus, the musical scale serves to decompose any melody into the notes that compose it, but also to organize the sounds according to a hierarchical, sequential and structural criterion.
Musical scales can be of different types, depending on how many notes they are composed of: pentatonic (5 notes), hexatonic (6 notes), or the one used in most Western music, the heptatonic or diatonic, composed of 7 notes: C, re, mi, fa, sol, la, yes. There is also the twelve-note scale or chromatic scale, widely used by avant-garde musicians.