Download Is Pluto Real - Jesseca Rough

Jesseca Rough
Physics 1040
Class Paper
Is Pluto Real?
For my conversation I chose to answer the question “Is Pluto Real?” I had never
before asked the question myself, but because of an inquisitive little girl and for the love
of proofs, I tried to find a way to answer a question and complete an assignment, thus
killing two birds with one stone. In this paper I explain my reasons for picking the topic,
planning and presenting it, the problems I encountered along the way and what I learned
from the experience.
Finding a topic:
For this project I really wasn’t sure where to begin. I love many aspects of
physics, but having a 60 minute long conversation about something to do with
Astronomy to my family and friends was not something I thought they would be willing
to listen to or even remotely interested in participating in. Also I have terrible stage
fright, so talking in a structured manner gives me anxiety. Then as I was babysitting one
day my lovely nine year old niece Winter asked me a question that at first I laughed at but
then eventually it led me to finding my conversation topic. She asked me if Pluto was
real. “Well yes, why do you ask?” I said. “At school they said it wasn’t real anymore and
I was sad about it and wondered what happened to it, where did it go?” she said. I knew
she had misinterpreted her teacher’s topic about Pluto not being a “planet” anymore, but
because she misinterpreted it, I assumed she must not know much about the solar system
or how planets are found and seeing as how we learned about this recently I thought it
was a great conversation topic.
The Plan:
My nieces’ question was simple in the sense of an English statement, “Is Pluto
Real?” But to prove something to a nine year old is very difficult and would require me
to do some serious research. I thought I would prove Pluto’s existence using pictures, but
since pictures and diagrams found on the internet are often both artists’ interpretations of
ideas and very inaccurate, I found some calculations of Pluto’s orbit and how it differed
from the other planets, just in case the pictures were faked. Once I could show and
visually prove that Pluto was in fact real, I would then explain the origins of our solar
system, the planets, and the reasons why Pluto was no longer called a planet, but was still
very much a part of our solar system.
I decided to design a two sided presentation board as a visual aide and guide for
my discussion. I used the information from our text book and pictures from ESO and
various images from NASA to compile a collage on either side. On the first side I cut out
and pasted both a very pixilated image from the Hubbell Space telescope of Pluto in 1994
as well as an image taken in 2004 that showed Pluto’s true color. I also placed pictures
that people had drawn or painted and explained that it was difficult to get real pictures of
something so far away to look like something more than a pixilated blob. The second side
of the board showed pictures of the eight planets from NASA’s website as well as the
properties that are unique to each planet. I was able to then turn the board over and show
why Pluto was not like the other planets and the correlation would help prove why Pluto
was in fact, not a planet but closer to a comet and subsequently re-named a dwarf planet.
The Presentation:
I did a small presentation for my nine year old niece and six other children who
are friends and relatives. The children were between the ages of 7 and 12. I chose
children as my audience because from my experience as a mother and aunt I know they
ask the most questions and many of them probably didn’t know the full story of Pluto’s
fate, so they would be interested in the topic. Also I enjoy making presentation boards
and I assumed kids would be more appreciative of my art skills than adults would be. I
presented my topic outside my mother’s house so the kids could sit on the grass in the
shade and since many of the kids live in the neighborhood, it was easier for their parents
to pick them up afterwards. Three parents chose to stay and watch. I timed the
presentation to be about 30 minutes beforehand but with questions, comments and
bathroom breaks it lasted well over an hour, bordering on two, which is what I was
counting on, so luckily it came to pass.
I began my presentation by telling them that it was okay to ask questions but that
the questions had to be about my presentation and that they needed to raise their hands
first. I should have just told them to save their questions till the end because I was
bombarded by questions from the beginning. I told them how Winter, my niece, had
asked me a question about Pluto and if it was real, I then asked if anyone knew what
Pluto was. I proceeded to go through my explanation and proof of Pluto’s existence and
physical properties. I then went through the formation of the planets, each planets mass,
radius and distance from the sun using the table from chapter 6 in our textbook, and then
I was able to turn the board over and ask them in turn, how Pluto was different. By
allowing them to tell me what they had learned, I believe they were able to take away
more than if I had just sat up there reading a speech. And I was surprised how excited
they were to answer my questions, I even had to stop them occasionally because they got
so animated I couldn’t understand them anymore
The Problems:
I was surprised that many of the questions the kids asked had to deal with how the
Hubble space telescope worked. “How does the telescope fly through space?” “How does
a telescope take pictures?”” How big is the telescope?”, “Who invented the telescope?”
All of which reluctantly, I had no clue about. I guess I should have done more research
about the telescope, but since my topic was on Pluto’s demise and the planets themselves
and not the telescopes that found them, I just told the kids to have their parents’ Google
the telescope when they got home. Other problems I encountered were external, for one,
it was hot so the kids were restless and in need of constant hydration. Then I forgot that
kids’ bladders are notoriously small so I had to stop and restart a few times to compensate
for the groups’ juice consumption. Also my “proof” for the existence of Pluto based on
calculation was useless to kids who haven’t even mastered their times tables yet, though
the 12 year old seemed interested to a degree. I didn’t count on having to define radius
and mass, nor did I plan on giving a long demonstration of distances in space, but that
actually was quite fun and I used bird seeds and pine cones from the grass as a
demonstration and had the kids get up and run around.
If I could change anything I would have moved the discussion indoors due to the
heat and discarded the math stuff completely. I also would have invited more people
because we actually had a fun time and my stage fright was gone by the end of it.
The Lessons:
What I learned the most about this project was how much teaching teaches you. I
am an expert now (or at least I will get the questions on the final about planets right) in
identifying the different planets, their terrains, how they came to be and why Pluto is so
different from them. I was surprised at just how many pictures I had to look through in
order to find a decent and accurate picture of Pluto, I found 2 in thousands of artistic
portrayals from google images and I wrote them in the sources at the end of this paper.
Even though it was hot and my presentation was choppy, the kids said they enjoyed it and
were excited to go and look for more information on the internet about telescopes and
planets. I was really impressed with the children’s depth of questions and statements. One
child said “Since stars are suns and suns have planets, then there should be loads of alien
kids right?” Kids love astronomy and showing them the pictures of Pluto and the rest of
the planets seemed to inspire them, including my niece who, for the most part is
interested in Dragons and video games, not science. What surprised me the most was
how intrigued the adults were. They came up to me afterwards and thanked me for having
their kids over because they too were unaware of the circumstances surrounding Pluto
being cast out of the list of our planets, one parent even said they were excited to talk to
coworkers on Monday morning about the experience.
Conclusion:
I am glad we were given this assignment. Pluto is real. It’s an integral part of our
solar system and its story is a great lesson in the history of not only astronomy, but in
mans evolution in our own understanding of the world around us because it proves that
existence is subjective, based on interpretation and can always be redefined given enough
time, energy and technological advances. Maybe we are not alone, maybe we are
completely wrong about our understanding of the universe and maybe we are the “Pluto”
in the grand scheme of things, on the brink of being redefined by a universe with a sense
of humor.
Sources:
The Essential Cosmic Perspective, 5th edition, by Jeffrey Bennett, Megan DonaHue,
Nicholas Schneider and Mark Voit
Picture of Pluto and Charon courtesy of ESO
http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso9409a/
Picture of Plutos true color, brown Courtesy of Nasa
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap010319.html
Pictures of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune Courtesy
of Nasa
http://apod.nasa.gov