Search results
Purpose: 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. A convenient scale has 1 foot representing 1 million miles.
Distance: pixels. Desktop version 1.2.2. 1 pixel = 1,000 km. This 2D visual model illustrates the scale of the sun and planets in our solar system, and their current distance from each other.
Although we could print the planet sizes to scale, the paper would need to be way too large to show the scaled distances. Instead, to help you understand the sizes and distances of our solar system, we’ve created a scale model. Our Solar System, real imagery but not to scale.
Scale Model of the Solar System. Goals: To get an idea of the scale of the solar system with the sizes of the planets. To be able to correctly change from “real” distances to scale distances. What You Turn In:
Have you ever wondered about the sizes of planets in the solar system or the distances between them? In this project, you will create your own scale model of the solar system by learning how to calculate scale distances, the relative sizes of planets, or both.
distance. It is simply the distance that light can travel in a year. It’s a massive number. Light can travel 300 000 km in one second and there’s 3600 of those in an hour, 24 of those in a day and 365 of those in a year. That means that in one year a beam of light will travel: 300 000 x 3600 x 24 x 365 = 9 460 800 000 000 kilometres
distance scale 1 cm : 1 astronomical unit (note the mention of lower-case) or 149,597,870.7 km. Provide a simple ruler, a pencil, and an example, and have students make their own to take home. Tape the information onto the back of the sheet, for those who want to keep the actual numbers.
