How to Represent a Picture With a Diagram in Sixth Grade Math
A diagram is a pictorial way of representing information, usually to compare or show how something works. Diagrams use symbols to represent things, such as circles representing each book when you use a venn diagram to compare two books. Blueprints, another kind of diagram, use lines and shapes to represent buildings and measurements. When turning a picture into a diagram, you will essentially be making a blueprint of the picture.
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Instructions
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Measure the picture. Use your ruler to record the width and length of the picture and the objects in it.
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Write a list of each big thing in the picture. If you are making a diagram of your room, for example, you might write bed, window, door, chair, dresser, desk and closet.
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Choose symbols. Next to each word, choose a simple symbol to represent it. To represent a window, you might draw a long skinny rectangle with a line through the middle. To represent the bed, you might use a trapezoid. Simple shapes and lines will work best for the symbol.
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Choose the scale. If the picture you are representing is the same size as your paper, you can draw everything to scale. If not, you will have to decide what scale you will use to make sure everything in your diagram represents the picture appropriately. For example, If the length of the room in the picture is 18 inches and the room in your diagram is 9 inches, then every measurement must be divided by 2 and your scale is 1:2.
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Draw the outline. If your picture is of a room or something else with a simple shape, draw that shape on a new piece of paper. If you picture is of the outdoors, you will have to choose the boundaries of the diagram and draw them onto the paper.
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Write the title. Give your diagram a title and write it at the top.
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Draw your symbols. Correct the size for scale, then draw each symbol in the appropriate place on the diagram. Use your ruler to make sure they are all to scale.
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Tips & Warnings
Make sure you use the same symbol for each representation. For example, each chair would be represented by the same symbol throughout the diagram.
When using a picture to solve a math word problem, you usually don't need a diagram as well. Choose one or the other in most situations.
