I'm doing a project on the distance from the sun to the planets. I'm using a paper 2 meters in lenght. I have to put the distance of each planet from the sun in METERS OR CENTIMETERS in the paper. Could anyone put the estimate distance in meters/cm in the paper?
Thx in advance.
2006-10-08 11:59:48 · 3 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Use this calculator:
http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/solar_system/
Just put in one number (the diameter of the Sun in either inches or millimeters) and it'll tell you how far away to put all the planets in order for them to be to scale.
It seems that if Neptune is 2 meters from the Sun, Mercury would be 2.5 cm away.
Anyway, this will do all the hard work for you. Have fun with the project!
2006-10-08 21:28:34 · answer #1 · answered by Jacob1207 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's all about scale. First decide how many centimeters an AU should be. An AU (Astronomical Unite) is 93million miles. That's the distance between earth and the sun. Make it an easy distance on paper to work with, like 10 centimeters. figure out the scale based on 93 million miles compared to 10 centimeters. The scale will be a really small fraction. Use this fraction to convert all the other planetary distances into centimeters, and use a ruler to plot the points on the paper. It should be pretty simple, but may take a few hours.
2006-10-08 19:04:53 · answer #2 · answered by martin h 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
well.... let's say that 1 au = 10cm....
mercury - 3.9cm
venus - 7.2cm
earth - 10cm
mars - 15.2cm
jupiter - 52cm
saturn - 95.4cm
Uranus - 191.8cm
Neptune - 300.6cm
Pluto - 394.4cm
the AU distance of each planet (in order from mercury to pluto)
.39
.72
1
1.52
5.2
9.54
19.18
30.06
39.44
if you don't like my scale, figure out a different one... say you want 1 AU to equal 5cm... just multiply the AU distance of each planet by 5 and you'll get the distance in cm...
2006-10-08 19:20:09 · answer #3 · answered by Brooks B 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋