You can build a model of the Great Pyramid, but first you need to scale
it down. To do this, you will need to make the pyramid 3,000 times smaller than
it really is! To achieve that, every 30 meters of the pyramid is represented as
1 centimeter on the outline provided.
Once you have printed and assembled your scaled-down model of the Great
Pyramid, you can compare it to scaled-down versions of other buildings and
objects, including people.
Object
Actual Height
Scale Height (1 cm = 30 m)
Object to represent scaled-down height
Great Pyramid
146.5 m
4.9 cm
paper pyramid
Statue of Liberty
92 m
3 cm
small paper clip
Sears Building
443 m
14.8 cm
ball-point pen
Average person
1.7 m
.05 cm (.5 mm)
grain of salt
Eiffel Tower
300 m
?
?
Leaning Tower of Pisa
55 m
?
?
Try finding the scale heights for other objects, such as the tallest building
in your neighborhood, your home, or your height. To do this, divide the
object's height in meters by 30 to get its scale height in centimeters. Then
find an object to represent it next to your paper pyramid.
Now it's your turn to scale a pyramid!
We've scaled down the Great Pyramid for you. Now it's up to you to see if you can
create scale models of the other two pyramids on the Giza Plateau, Khafre and
Menkaure. Here are their actual dimensions:
