Download Students make a distance-scale solar system model with toilet paper.

The Toilet Paper Solar System
Activity:
Students make a distance-scale solar system model with toilet paper.
Science Standards
Scientific Models (scale)
Objectives:
 The student will identify attributes to classify planets in our solar system.
 The student will draw and describe one planetary object.
 The student will observe the relative distance between planets.
Materials:
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pictures of the solar system
10 large white sheets of poster board
coloring markers
reference books for pictures of the planets
one roll of traditional school-grade bond toilet paper
Introduction:
Interplanetary travel is extremely difficult due to the almost unimaginable distances between the
planets in our solar system. Voyager II, traveling at nearly 50,000 mph took 12 years to reach the
planet Neptune. We can make a scale model of the distances between the planets using almost
anything as our reference. In doing so, we may be able to determine a variety of ways to classify
the planets of our solar system. It is almost impossible to make a scale model of the solar system
that is correct in both planetary diameter and distance. Using a 1 m Sun and a 5 mm Earth, Pluto
is found almost one half mile away; using 1 sheet = 10,000,000 miles.
Directions:
1. Using the large poster paper, illustrate in detail the Sun and each of the nine planets on
individual sheets (one object per sheet). Write interesting facts about the object on the back of
the poster.
2. Place all of the posters at the front of the room. List as many ways as possible to classify
(group) them by the appearance of the posters.
3. Using a roll of school-grade toilet tissue, mark off the distances to the planets using a scale of
one tissue = 10,000,000 miles (refer to the sheet on the following page). Have an individual hold
a planet-poster at each of the appropriate distances.
4. List some more ways to classify the planets by various attributes.
THE TOILET PAPER SOLAR SYSTEM
SCALE MODE:
Using a scale of 1 standard sheet of toilet tissue as 10,000,000 miles, we can use the unwound
length of the roll of tissue as a ruler for a scale model of the solar system.
Number of # of Tissues
Celestial
Sheets from from previous
Object
Sun
object
Sun
0.0
0.0
Mercury
3.6
3.6
Venus
6.7
3.1
Earth
9.3
2.6
Mars
14.1
4.8
Jupiter
48.4
34.3
Saturn
88.7
40.3
Uranus
178.6
90
Neptune
280.0
101.0
Pluto
(avg.
orbit)
366.4
86.4
Q. Alpha Centari is the closest visible star to our Sun. How many sheets away is it?
Answer:
It is located 25,000,000,000,000 miles away or 2,500,000 sheets away (200 miles on this scale).
In this model, the Sun is 0.4 inch in diameter and the Earth is 0.001 inch in diameter.