A solar system is a group of planets and other space material orbiting (going around) a star. In our solar system, that star is known as the Sun and the planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
We want our model to reflect the relative distances and sizes of the planets.
Materials:
- Metric ruler
- White poster board
- Pencil
- Drafting compass (the kind you draw circles with)
- Scissors
- Permanent Marker
Procedure: Scale Model of Distances from Sun
- Trace 9 circles using the bowl as a guide. Because the distance scale model only is concerned with distances between the planets, you can make all the planets the same size.
- Label the circle's Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
- Cut the circles out.
- Position yourself as the Sun.
- Give each of your friends a cut-out planet to hold.
- Have your friends position themselves the following distances from you. (Note that some of the measurements are in centimeters rather than meters. A centimeter is 1/100 of a meter, just like a cent is 1/100 of a dollar).
Procedure: Scale Model of Relative Diameters of Planets
- First, we need to compare the diameter of the Earth to that of the other planets. Remember that diameter is the length of a straight line going through the middle of a circle. The Earth’s diameter is 12,750 km. We can divide the diameter of the Earth into the diameters of all the planets, to get a relative comparison. The Sun, with a diameter of 1,393,000 km, is over a million times bigger than Earth and would be too big to draw on a piece of paper for this activity.
- Use the ruler to draw a line for the diameter. Start with drawing the relative diameters of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
- Using the compass, draw circles around the diameters.
- Fit in the smaller planets (Earth, Mercury, Venus, and Mars) around where you drew the bigger planets.
- Label the planets, so you don’t forget which is which when you are cutting them out. For tiny planets, you might have to use an abbreviation.
- Cut your planets out.
Results
When you build the scale model of solar system distances, you will undoubtedly notice that some of your friends will be much closer together than others. Some of your friends will have to stand quite close to each other, while others will be far enough away to have a hard time hearing you! When you compare the sizes of the planets, Jupiter and Saturn will seem gigantic compared to the others.
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