assume milky way's diameter is 50 kpc
2006-11-19 05:06:47 · 7 answers · asked by pahoney 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
how did you figure out that the milky way is 100,000 lyrs? i still need to know exactly how big the earth is
2006-11-19 05:13:26 · update #1
This is a simple ratio problem. The equation would be Dgalaxy/Dearth=Dearth/x so x=(Dearth)^2/Dgalaxy. Asssuming a parsec is 3.6 light years, and a light year is 5.87 trillion miles and the diameter of the Earth is 8,000 miles, then the Earth would be 0.001 millimeter or one micron in size, which is the size of an average bacterium, maybe? Very cool. Oops! I re-did my calculation and I see that I made a factor of ten error. The correct answer is about 0.1 microns, or the size of some viruses. But tell me how you would make such a model of the Earth?
2006-11-19 05:14:27 · answer #1 · answered by Sciencenut 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
If the Milky way is the diameter of the Earth, then the celebrities are the dimensions of a grain of sand. And the quantity of sand representing all trillion stars could fill the back of a pickup truck---approximately 2 cubic meters. So the Milky way is surprisingly empty; one pickup truck finished of stuff in a quantity the dimensions of the Earth.
2016-11-25 19:45:43 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Far too small to be visible, not even the size of a tiny speck of dirt. Here is another example: if the Sun was the size of a beach ball on the goal line of a football field, Earth would be the size of a dried pea or a tiny pebble about fifty yards away. The nearest other star would be about five MILES away.
19 NOV 06, 1826 hrs, GMT.
2006-11-19 05:22:26 · answer #3 · answered by cdf-rom 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hi!
If we suppose that in your model of Milky Way, the size of Earth will be that of the hydrogen atom (0, 000 000 000 1 m) then the galaxy would occupied a circle with a 74 km diameter
2006-11-19 05:29:09 · answer #4 · answered by Night Sorrows 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I get 100nm (about 0.1 microns). I assumed the earth has a diameter of ~40000km. (The meter was originally definined as 1/10,000,000 the distance from the North Pole to the equator along the prime meridian). 50kpc is a bit generous in my opinion, though I suppose it depends on how you define the "edge."
Of course you need to show your work to get full credit, but at least you can check your answer. You should be able to reason out HOW to calculate this on your own.
2006-11-19 14:15:11 · answer #5 · answered by Mr. Quark 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the milky way is about 100,000 light years. If the is the size of the Earth then the Earth probably can't be visible in your model
2006-11-19 05:11:32 · answer #6 · answered by 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The earth would be a minute speck and not discernible to the naked eye. Imagine trying to see earth on a 1 to 1 scale, impossible I would think.
2006-11-19 05:15:42 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋