so I was surfing youtube and I saw a video 1/4 scale model airplane and I was thinking hmmm what is scale model? I always assumed it was reduced by so much 1/4 would be 4 airplanes lined up should be as long as the real thing. but looking at this aircraft I didn't not think for example 4 seats side by side would measure to a real seat probably only be about 10 inches wide. so either this was not a 1/4 scale and more like a 1/16 scale or my assumption is in accurate. btw in my drafting class in high school so it was a while ago but we would use 1/4" for every foot maybe that's what a 1/4 scale is idk.
One quarter inch for every foot would not be a 1/4 scale model. A 1/4 scale model would be 25% the size of the real item. Or in the terms I think in, one foot on the model, for every four feet on the real. Say a real aircraft has a measurement of 36 feet. Quarter scale would be nine feet. 9x4=36.
If it were a 1/8 scale model you'd break the same 36' measurement down into eight parts. 36/8=4.5. That thirty-six foot measurement at 1/8th scale is four and a half feet. Notice that 1/8 is half of 1/4 and the measurements of 9 and 4.5 reflect that. The math works both ways, whether multiplying or dividing, it just depends on how you think. For me, multiplying is easier.