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A draughtsman's scale is a ruler-like device, often with a triangular cross-section, that permits him to represent items in the same relative dimensions.

The scale of a map or enlarged or reduced model indicates the ratio between the distances on the map or model and the corresponding distances in reality or the original. E.g. a map of scale 1:50,000 shows a distance of 50,000 cm (=500 m) as 1 cm on a map, and a model on a scale 1:25 of a building with a height of 30 m has a model height of 1.20 m.

In model railways a number of standard scales are indicated by letters and numbers such as "G", "O", "HO", "N" and "Z".

Scales with special uses are often named after the person who invented them.

• The Richter scale, the Mercali scale , the Rossi-Forel scale and the Omori are all used to measure the intensity of earthquakes.
• The Beaufort scale is used to measure wind force.
• The Celsius scale measures the temperature.
• The Goldberg scale measures mania and depression.
• The Scoville Scale measures the hotness of peppers.
• The Glasgow Coma Scale measures the severity of comas.
• The Fujita scale measures the intensity of tornadoes.
• The Torino scale and the Palermo scale measure the impact hazard level of near-Earth objects such as asteroids.

See also

• Orders of magnitudeAn order of magnitude is the class of bigness, the class of size, the class of magnitude, of any amount, where each separate class contains ten times larger amounts than the one before. It is generally used to make very approximate comparisons. If two num
• Weighing scaleA weighing scale (usually just "scale" in common usage) is a device using for measuring the weight of an object. These scales are often used to measure the weight of a person, but are also used in science to obtain an approximate mass of an object. The or
• ScaleScale (botany) Scale (zoology) Scale (music) Scale (measurement) Scale (chemical) Scale (social sciences) Scale (spatial) Scale (computing) Order of magnitude Logarithmic scale Scale model Architect's scale Engineer's scale. (disambiguation)
• Scale (social sciences)Scaling is the measurement of a variable in such a way that it can be expressed on a continuum. Rating your preference for a product from 1 to 10 is an example of a scale. With comparative scaling the items are directly compared with each other (example :
• Scales of scale modelsA scale model is a representation or copy of an object that is larger or smaller than the actual size of the object being represented. Very often the scale model is smaller than the original and used as a guide to making the object in full size. Scale mod