THE SOLAR SYSTEM

A scale model. The scale

Fran J. García Gil

Our objective: To make a scale model of the solar system using one of the wall of our
class. In order to work in this way, we have to work in two phases:
PHASE I: Calculate distances between the sun and the planets (orbit radius)
PHASE II: Represent a scale model of sun and the planets (the scale we will use here will be
different).

PHASE I: Distances between sun and the planets.

We have a wall of 8.9 m in the class, and the largest distance we want to represent is
30.06 AU (Astronomical Units).
Question 1: How many meters do we need to represent one AU
8.9m÷30.06 AU =0.30 m every AU
Question 2: Investigate (Internet) the distance from the sun to the rest of the planets.
Question 3: Try to complete the following table:

Planet Real distance (AU) Class distance

Mercury 0.39

Venus 0.72

Earth 1

Mars 1,52

Jupiter 5,2

Saturn 9,54

Uranus 19,22

Neptune 30,06

PHASE II: Planet sizes

If we used the same scale we used for the distances between planets, we had a radium
for sun of 0.00459 AU. So, it will be better for us to chose another scale.
For example, Sun Radius could be 1.25 m. The problem now is, what will be the radius of
every planet?
Let's think. Sun real radius is 695,000 km. So, if we are going to make a sun wtih a radius of
1.25 m = 125 cm, every km is transformed into:
Question 1: How many real km are in 1 cm of the representation?
695,000 km÷125 cm=5560 km/cm
Question 2: How many cm do we need to represent a real km
125 cm/695,000 km=0.000180 cm/ km
Question 3: Investigate (Internet) the radius of every planet.
Question 4: Try to complete the following table:

Planet Real diameter (km) Real radius (km) Class radius (cm)

Sun 695

Mercury 4878

Venus 12104

Earth 12576

Mars 6787

Jupiter 142800

Saturn 120000

Uranus 51118

Neptune 49528

To be continued... with the mathematical use of scales