If mercury is 3000 miles in diameter and 36million miles from the sun. Venus is 7600 miles big and 67million miles from the sun. Earth is 8000 and 93million. Mars is 4200 and 141million. Jupiter is 89000 and 483million. Saturn is 75000 and 881million. Uranus is 33000 and 1.785billion. And Neptune is 31000 and 2.795billion. What's a good scale model to have this go by so that my model of the solar system could fit into the average classroom? I tried 1000 miles equals one inch. That would make mercury 3 inches in diameter which is good, but it would be 3000 feet from the sun, which is impractical. Also, could you tell me how big and how far from the sun each planet would be.
2007-03-17 15:25:55 · 5 answers · asked by Charlie Brown 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Unfortunately, there aren't any good scales to use for astronomical distances. If you get the orbit of Neptune in the classroom, the sun will be the size of a grain of rice and Jupiter will be about the size of a speck of pepper. You just have to take a bit of 'poetic license' ☺
Doug
2007-03-17 15:35:53 · answer #1 · answered by doug_donaghue 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
You just can't.
Suppose that you decide of 100 000 000 miles (that is one hundred million miles) to a foot, then Neptune would be 28 feet from the scale sun -- about the size of a classroom. At that scale, Mercury would be 0.00036 inch, the size of a bacteria, and one would need a microscope to see it. Jupiter, the largest planet, would be 1/100 of an inch, the size of a small grain of sand or smaller than a single pixel on your computer monitor. Even the sun would be 1/10 of an inch (and bacteria sized planet earth would be about 11 inches away from the tiny sun).
It just cannot be made practical to scale, at that size.
But if you did, you'd at least pass the realization as to why most of what is out there is called "space".
2007-03-17 22:45:58 · answer #2 · answered by Vincent G 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Well, if you used a foot to 100 million miles then Neptune would be 28 feet from your sun, and that is probably too far. A half foot per 100 million miles would work (that's 16 million miles per inch), but the planets would mostly be exceedingly small at that scale. Jupiter, for example, would be about .005 inches across (very roughly) at that scale. You must compromise: either the planets must be too large for your scale, or your distances too small for the planets. I recommend this: have two models, one with the average orbital distance at 16 million miles per inch for the solar system, and another model showing the relative sizes of the planets at, say, 50,000 miles per inch (Jupiter would be about an inch and 3/4 across, at that scale, and Earth would be 0.15 inches. Also, I recommend using a metric scale for accuracy and convenience.
2007-03-17 23:45:29 · answer #3 · answered by David A 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Takes the whole football field and Neptune, Uranus, and Pluto, if you still count Pluto, are up in the stands. The Sun is a tennis ball and all the planets are the size of the head of a stick pin. They are actually smaller but what is smaller than the head of a pin that we can see? See how small we really are?
2007-03-21 04:33:16 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
You can't make both to scale. Most orbital models used somewhat of a scale distance, then scale the planets to each other. use ratios instead of actual distances.
2007-03-17 23:44:11 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋