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Name ________________________________ Partners ______________________ Stars Above, Earth Below By Tyler Nordgren Laboratory Exercise for Chapter 4 Equipment: Meter stick, surveying flags (on each flag tape one of the “planets” found at the end of the lab) SCALE MODEL SOLAR SYSTEM Purpose: To make a model of our solar system where the size of the planets and their distances from one another and the Sun are accurate and to the same scale. Introduction Have you ever looked at a road map while on a long car trip? On the map the dot marking LA and the dot marking New York City are 27 inches apart. In reality we know that the two cities are not actually 27 inches apart. But we do know that the map is to scale. What this means is that we can trust that every inch shown on the map corresponds to some number of miles in real life. This is the map’s scale and is usually shown by a bar in the corner somewhere. For the map I’ve described above, the scale says that 1 inch = 100 miles (scale = 100 miles/inch). If the two cities are 27 inches apart on the map then they are 2700 miles apart in reality. We are going to make a scale map (or model) of our solar system. The solar system is defined as the whole collection of planets, moons, asteroids, and comets that orbit our Sun, a star. Since the name of our star is Sol, the collection of things orbiting it is the solar system. Instructions I would like the Sun in our model to be the size of a large orange or grapefruit: 5 inches in diameter. We will now determine how big our model will need to be in order for the Sun to be an orange. 1. Before we calculate anything, how big of a solar system do you think this model will be if the Sun is going to be the size of an orange? Will this model of the solar system fit (pick the closest): a. Inside the classroom? b. Inside the building? c. Inside the boarders of campus? d. Inside the city? Stars Above, Earth Below Scale Model Solar System Page 2 e. Inside the state? STOP now and discuss your guess with the class. 2. A big orange is about 5 inches in diameter. If the sun is really 1,392,000 km in diameter, what will the scale of this solar system model be in km/inch? In other words, every inch we measure will represent how many kilometers in the solar system? Scale = _________________________ km/inch 3. We now need to shrink each of the planets by this amount. On Table 1, calculate the diameter of each planet in inches based on the scale you just found. If you’ve done everything correctly you should get the same diameter for the Sun as you started with: 5 inches. 4. Now let’s check your answer to Question 1: How big is this scale model? If it’s too big to walk it won’t be practical for us to make. On the bottom half of the same table as before, calculate the distance between the Sun and each of the planets. Since the distance expressed in inches will be a large number, express each distance in yards (36 inches = 1 yard). NOTE: the number given for each planet’s distance is in millions of kilometers. Stop here until everyone is ready. Stars Above, Earth Below Scale Model Solar System Page 3 Table 1: The size and distances of the planets. Planet Sun Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto Planet Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto Diameter (km) 1,392,000 4,880 12,100 12,800 6,800 142,800 120,000 52,000 49,500 2300 Distance (x106 km) 58 108 150 228 778 1,427 2,871 4,497 5,914 Scaled Diameter (inches) Scaled Distance (yards) Stars Above, Earth Below Scale Model Solar System Page 4 Answer Key Planet Sun Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto Planet Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto Diameter (km) 1,392,000 4,880 12,100 12,800 6,800 142,800 120,000 52,000 49,500 2300 Distance (AU) 0.4 0.7 1 1.5 5.2 9.5 19.1 30.1 39.5 Scaled Diameter (inches) 5 - orange .02 – poppy seed .04 - sprinkle .04 - sprinkle .02 – poppy seed .5 - skittle .4 - skittle .19 – pepper corn .18 – pepper corn .01 – poppy seed Scaled Distance (yards) 6 10 15 23 78 142 286 452 592