Scale drawings - how do you use scales

Rudolph Claus

Can someone help me please.
Right, im having trouble understanding different scales, ect...

Say i want to draw the front of a house which measures 13.4metres in reallife. I want to draw it on my page at scale 1:50.

Ive a scale ruler but i cant seem to grasp the whole concept of scales. On the scale ruler theres the 1:5 scale and on the same bit of the ruler is the 1:50 scale. Now, 1:50 is the same as 1:5, you just add on an extra zero??? I dont get this?

Can someone tell me what 13.5m is in 1:50 scale measuring off in centimeters on an ordinary centimetre ruler. Is it 26.8cm?

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Also, is it correct to say that the larger the number your scaling to, the smaller the drawing will be. So if i draw it in scale 1:5 it`ll be way bigger than if drawn in scale 1:200?

Anyone know of any good books i can get to learn all this from the basics. Im doing a lot of tech drawing at college having never done it at school and i seem to have a mental block when it comes to scaling.

david

Dont bother with scale rulers, 1:50 means that the drawing is fifty times smaller than real measurments so just multiply the real measurments by 1/50