Distances are more important to me than the Sizes of the planets.
2007-03-28 06:30:47 · 4 answers · asked by Hot Ice 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Suppose that you draw the sun to a diameter of 1 inch (possibly 72 pixels across on your screen). Mercury's diameter is about 1/250 of the sun's, so Mercury on that scale would be 1/250 of an inch (meaning that even at 1 pixel, it's out of scale).
The earth on this scale is about 110 inches (9 feet) away from the sun and would also be represented by 1 pixel. Neptune on this scale is about 180 feet from the sun and is about 3 pixels across (maybe 10 pixels in total area). So to represent the solar system out to Neptune with both the objects and the distances to even rough scale, you'd need a picture about 360 feet wide.
If you're willing to ignore the sizes of the planets and just deal with distances, you could shrink the radius of Neptune's orbit to be about 2 feet (meaning that you'd need about a 4' by 4' area to show the entire orbit). On this scale Earth is 1 inch from the sun, with Venus and Mercury crammed inside that 1 inch.
2007-03-28 07:39:15 · answer #1 · answered by Isaac Laquedem 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I have done this drawing on my computer using the AutoCad program. You will find that a drawing of the solar system drawn to scale cannot be seen. That is, if you draw the planets to a scale size and their orbits to the same scale and the sun to the same scale, the distances between the sun and the planets is so great that 1) either these objects will be so small that you will need a microscope to see them or 2) the objects will be so far apart that they will be strewn over an area as large as a city - again, most of the planets will then be too far away to see. The drawing can be made but you will not be able to see it all at once unless you exaggerate the size of the planets and sun to something like a thousand times what they should be.
2007-03-28 14:08:24 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Search on the Internet for, The Size of our World, you will be able to see the difference in the Planets in a very cleverly worked out way.
Chris.
2007-03-28 18:07:36 · answer #3 · answered by GOD 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
best i've found http://www.rense.com/general72/size.htm hope this is what you're looking for
2007-03-28 21:29:32 · answer #4 · answered by Tim C 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋