Download Scale Model Solar System (with Pluto)

Scale Model Solar System (with Pluto)
Supplemental Teaching Activity (6th-8th)
Montana Space Public Outreach Team
This activity will allow you to create a scale model of the solar system (and Pluto, which is not considered a planet
anymore). Making a model that is accurate in both relative size and distance of planets can be difficult (for an 8’’ Sun, it
requires .5 miles, while the solar system that fits in a football field, has planets that are too small to see), so we suggest
using one of the two scales on the left to compare relative size, then shifting to the scale where the sun is 1’’ and Pluto is
a football field-length away (120 yards) to compare relative distance from the Sun. The more hands-on the activity, the
more powerful it is. Try to have physical objects that are roughly the correct size and have students guess which one is
Earth, etc. When comparing distances, try letting students represent different planets and stand at the proper place on
a football field. Have fun with it!
While not necessary, we recommend examining the proportional reasoning used to determine the scale values, as
described on the second page. This can go as far as having students create tables similar to those given for a different
scale length, or simply investigating how the given tables were made. The scales are rounded, and based off of the
values given at the website: http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/solar_system/. Some reference charts use slightly
different numbers, which would lead to slightly different scale numbers.
Remember, Pluto is no longer considered a planet, but is the largest dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt, which is estimated
to contain thousands of objects larger than 62 miles (100 km) in diameter. The distance to Pluto is an approximate
distance to the beginning of the Kuiper Belt (1st syllable rhymes with ‘lie’).
Distance from
the Sun (miles)
Sun
0
Mercury
.25 mi. (1/4)
Venus
Diameter
(feet and
inches)
32’
(about the size
of a classroom)
Scale Solar System
Scale Solar System
(scale: diameter of Sun = 8’’)
Scale Solar system
(scale: diameter of Sun = 32’)
Object
Distance from
the Sun (feet)
Diameter
(inches)
0
8’’
1.2’’ (Walnut)
28’ (9 yd)
.47 mi. (1/2)
3.3’’ (Apple)
Earth
.65 mi. (2/3)
Mars
(scale: Pluto distance= 120 yards
{football field with end zones})
Distance from
the sun (feet)
Diameter
0
1’’
.03’’ (Pinhead)
4’ (1.2 yd)
.004’’
52’ (17 yd)
.070’’(Peppercorn)
7’ (2.2 yd)
.009”
3.5’’ (Apple)
72’ (24 yd)
.073’’(Peppercorn)
9’ (3 yd)
.009”
.99 mi. (1)
1.9’’
109’ (37 yd)
.04’’ (Pinhead)
14’ (4.5 yd)
.005”
Jupiter
3.39 mi.
3’ 3’’
373’
.82’’
47’ (16 yd)
.105”
(Peppercorn)
Saturn
6.21 mi.
2’ 2’’
683’
.67’’ (Hazelnut,
87’ (29 yd)
Uranus
12.50 mi.
1’ 1’’(Pumpkin,
Watermelon)
1375’ (.26mi.)
.27’’
175’ (58 yd)
.088”
(Peppercorn)
.038”
(Pinhead)
Neptune
19.59 mi.
1’ .5’’(Pumpkin,
Watermelon)
2155’ (.41 mi.) .26’’
274’ (91 yd)
.036”
(Pinhead)
Pluto
25.75 mi.
.6’’ (Hazelnut,
Acorn, Dime)
2832’ (.54 mi.) .01
360’ (120 yd)
.002”
(Kuiper Belt)
(124 yd, .07 mi.)
(228 yd, .13 mi.)
(Basketball,
Bowling ball,
Soccer ball)
(Marble, Chestnut,
Pecan, Quarter)
Acorn, Dime)
(Peanut, Coffee
Bean, Small Marble,)
(Peanut, Coffee
Bean, Small Marble)
(Pinhead or smaller)
(Marble, Chestnut,
Pecan, Quarter)
It isn’t usually possible to accurately depict the diameter of the planets when the scale distance is small. That’s ok, but
it’s important to realize that our common depiction of their size is incorrect.
Here is a recent video created by Wylie Overstreet and Alex Gorosh.
“To scale: The Solar System” published Sept 16th, 2015.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR3Igc3Rhfg
They use a scale where Neptune is 7 miles away.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now we examine the process of making a scale model:
This ratio can be used to make a model of the solar system at any scale:
𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓 𝑡𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑒 𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆 𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡 𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝
𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓 𝑡𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑒 𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆 𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡 𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃
=
𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓 𝑡𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑒 𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆 𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡 𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃 𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓 𝑡𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑒 𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆 𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡 𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝
Choose any convenient distance from the Sun to Pluto as your starting point, and find the distance from the sun to each
planet using the equation. The left ratio determines the scale of the model. Use miles for the actual distances, but you
can use miles, yards, feet or inches for the classroom distance.
A similar equation can give you the scale diameters of each planet, so you know how large they should be.
𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜 𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝
𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓 𝑡𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑒 𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆 𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡 𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃
=
𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓 𝑡𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑒 𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆 𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡 𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃 𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝑢𝑢𝑢𝑢𝑢𝑢 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜 𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝
Remember that the actual distance is measured in millions of miles (Mercury is 36,000,000 miles from the Sun), and that
you may need to do unit conversions to get meaningful answers.
There are three feet in a yard. The conversion for feet and inches is:
𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁 𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 ×
5280 𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓
= 𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁 𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜 𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓
1 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚
Object
𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁 𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜 𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓 ×
Actual Mean Distance
from the Sun
(in millions of miles)
12 𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖ℎ𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒
= 𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁 𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜 𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖ℎ𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒
1 𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓
Actual
diameter
(in miles)
Sun
0
864,938
Mercury
36
3,031
Venus
67.2
7,514
Earth
93
7,921
Mars
141.5
4,215
Jupiter
483.3
88,927
Saturn
886.2
74,520
Uranus
1782.9
32,168
Neptune
2792.6
30,757
Pluto
(Kuiper Belt)
3672
1,447