In this activity you will make two scale models of the solar system.
Solar system scale model object sizes marble earth.
Which model earth is the correct size scale for our model 2 5m sun.
A convenient scale has 1 foot representing 1 million miles.
There are many good projects that will show you how to make your own scale model.
Construct a scale model of the solar system to familiarize the student with the relative sizes and positions of the planets in the solar system and the vast distances between them and between the sun and other stars.
0 0002 inch or 0 005 millimeter.
An interesting middle school level activity would be to make a more accurate solar system scale model that would fit in the school yard as a follow on project 1.
Voyager 1 the most distant human made object has been in space for more than 40 years and it still has not escaped the influence of our sun as of feb.
The vast expanse of the black rock desert gave the crew the space needed to construct a to scale model of the solar system.
Understanding the size differences of objects in the solar system as well as their correct distances from each other is important.
The idea here is to communicate the relative sizes and distances of various objects without getting overly caught up in the accuracy of the comparisons.
There is a lot of empty space out there between the planets.
The instructor will show you 3 model earths to choose from.
Calculate the scaled planet diameters and planet sun distances for a solar system model.
Enter scale or diameter or distance select to show table and or map below select options then press calculate.
1 2020 voyager 1 is about 13 8 billion miles 22 2 billion kilometers from the sun nearly four times the average distance from the sun to icy pluto.
100000000 or sun diameter 10 cm or neptune distance from sun 1000 ft.
Scale size 7 5 be able to use information about the scale of the solar system.
Starting with the earth as the size of a marble it turns out you need an area about 7 miles 11 2km to squeeze in the orbit of the outermost planet neptune.
In their fantastic model the earth is only the size of a small marble.
Deborah scherrer stanford solar center.
A scale model uses the same measurement ratios as the real object does.
The first model will compare the distance the planets are from the sun in astronomical units the other model will compare the size of the planets using diameters in kilometers.
Solar system scale model.
Ask the participants how far away should the earth marble be placed to be in scale with the.
If we were making a scale model of the solar system it would not be the same size of the peppercorn sun but it would be practically invisible to the naked eye.