What are representative fraction

A representative fraction (RF) is the ratio of distance on the map to distance on the ground. Representative fractions are expressed in the form of 1 followed by a : (colon) and then a number, where the one is the numerator in the fraction, the colon represents the division operation, and the other number is the denominator. Thus, a scale of 1:24,000 can be expressed mathematically as 1/24,000. In fact, on some maps, you will see the RF represented using a division sign