A dilation project - Math Central

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Question from john, a student:

I am working on a dilation project.
How do I dilate an irregular octagon on a scale of 3.5

Hi John.

If by this you mean how do I make the area 3.5 times larger, then you would scale all linear measurements by the square root of 3.5 (which is about 1.87). That's of course because a linear measurement squared is an area measurement.

Cheers,
Stephen La Rocque.

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