The length of a piece of paper is 8.5 inches. useing scissors, you reduce the length of the paper to 4.25 inches. what is the scale factor of the dilation?

Original paper is 8.5 inches

the dilated paper is 4.25 inches

the scale factor is what u multiply the original by to get to the dilated.

so 8.5 times what is 4.25

8.5x = 4.25 ... divide both sides by 8.5

x = 4.25 / 8.5

x = 0.5 (or 1/2) < = = ur scale factor

You halved the length (8.5/4.25=2) so it was "scaled" by a factor of (1/2) = 0.5