During a heated debate in Mr. Martinez's twelfth-grade government class, a student declares that the problem with government spending is that the Congress spends so much money on themselves that they became unaware of the value of a dollar. Mr. Martinez then addresses the class in a calm voice saying:

1.8 km

Step-by-step explanation:

The scale on the map is 1 : 15000.

This means that every 1 cm on the map is equal to 15000 cm on the ground.

12 cm on the map will therefore be:

12 * 15000 = 180000 cm

Let us convert to kilometres:

100000 cm = 1 km

180000 cm = 180000 / 100000 = 1.8 km

12 cm on the map will be 1.8 km on the ground.