A prism with a volume of 360 yd³ is scaled down to a volume of 45 yd³. What is the scale factor?

First, we divide the original volume by the new volume of the prism obtained from scaling down the figure. That is,

r = 360 yd³ / 45 yd³

r = 8

Then, we get the cube root of the this ratio to get the scale factor,

sf = ∛r = ∛8 = 2

Thus, the answer is 2.