Download Solar System in Your Pocket

Solar System in Your Pocket
by Peggy Eddy
Activity: Using a strip of paper, construct a quick scale model of the solar
system
Materials:
 Pencil
 2” strip of paper, cardstock, register tape, or sentence strip (at least18
inches long)
Introducing the Activity:
When introducing this activity, it is useful to start by exploring the concept
of models. Referring to playthings, such as toy cars and dolls and/or a glove
being a model of the Earth, can be useful references for talking about scale
models and limitations to models.
Pull out a folded up completed sample of the solar system model. Point out
that the planets never appear in a straight line like this model, which is an
example of one of the limitations of this model. The planets would be found
somewhere along a circle this far from the Sun. If there is a bulletin board
with a pushpin, you can tack it to the board at the Sun and show or draw
out the orbits.
Doing the Activity:
1. Label one end of the strip “Sun” and the other end “Pluto/Kuiper Belt.”
That is the baseline – the average distance between the Sun and the
dwarf planet “Pluto.”
2. Fold the tape in half, crease it, open it up again, and place a mark at
the half-way point. Which planet’s orbit do you think is half-way
between the Sun and the average distance of Pluto’s orbit?
3. This is the planet “Uranus”.
4. Take the “Pluto” end and fold and crease it to “Uranus”
5. Place a mark at this point. This is “Neptune.”
6. Take the “Sun” end and fold it to “Uranus”. This is “Saturn”. (Here’s
an easy way to remember the order of the orbits of these three
planets. There’s a SUN at the center of the Solar System. Point to
the Sun end of the tape, and there’s a “SUN” in the outer planets: (S)
Saturn, (U) Uranus, (N) Neptune, S-U-N!
7. Fold, the “Sun” end to “Saturn”. Crease it and draw a line. What’s the
next planet? Label it Jupiter.
8. Fold the “Sun” to “Jupiter”. Think about the structure inside Jupiter’s
orbit? Draw a line and label it Asteroid Belt.
9. Ask how many more planets do we need to mark? At this point,
things start getting a little crowded and folding is tough to get
accurate distances.
10. Fold the “Sun” to the “Asteroid Belt”, crease, and mark it “Mars”.
Ask how many more planets do we need to place?
11. Fold the “Sun” to “Mars”. Leave it folded and fold that section in half
again.
12. Unfold the strip and you should have three creases. Mark “Earth” on
crease nearest “Mars”, then “Venus, and then “Mercury” closest to
the “Sun”.
Stretch out your model and take a good look at what you’ve made. What
surprises did you have? Can you pick out the inner planets? the outer
planets? Models are useful, but their use is always limited in some ways.
What are some of the strengths and limitations of this model? This model
represents the scaled distances to objects in our Solar System.
Common Misconceptions:
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Planets are perceived to be much larger than they really are.
The distances to the planets are perceived to be much smaller than
they really are.
The orbits of the planets are perceived to be evenly space between the
Sun and Pluto.
Many people are unaware of how empty the outer Solar System is
(there is a reason we call it space) and how close, relatively speaking,
the orbits of the inner Solar System are.
Fold up your solar system and place it in your pocket or glue into student
journals. For additional information on our Solar System, use NASA’s Solar
System Exploration website: http://solarsysten.nasa.gov/planets/index.cfm