The Universe to scale You can do a simulation using word. 1 Open a new blank document. 2 Key a single full stop. Next to it type 'The Moon'. 3 Press the return key twice. 4 Select Bold and type another full stop. Next to it type "The Earth'. 5 Press and hold down the return key so that the cursor scrolls down the page..... and the next ..... and so on for thirty pages. 6 Draw a circle about half a page wide. Type 'The Sun'. |
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Amazingly the sun is 400 times bigger than the moon and 400 times the distance of the moon from earth. This means they look the same size when viewed from earth. |
What are the relative sizes and distances of the earth, sun and moon?
It's very difficult to imagine the distances involved in the Solar System. A model is a useful way to begin to try.
The Thousand - Yard Model
The Sun - A ball about 8inches in diameter.
The Earth - A peppercorn 0.08 inches in diameter
The Moon - A pinhead
The Figures
The Earth is 8 000 miles wide
One inch in the model is equivalent to
100 000 miles.
Thus how far apart do the sun and the earth/moon need to be?
If a big footstep is 36 inches that is equivalent to
3 600 000 miles.
As the sun is 93 million miles away we need 26 paces to represent the distance.
If you added the other planets of the solar system
you would need:
10 big footsteps - Mercury
19 big footsteps - Venus
26 big footsteps - Earth
40 big footsteps - Mars
105 big footsteps - Jupiter
122 big footsteps - Saturn
252 big footsteps - Pluto
259 big footsteps - Uranus
291 big footsteps - Neptune
