A Model Based On A Classroom Globe
Relating the size of the Solar System to familiar objects can make it easier for students to grasp the relative distances. Most classroom globes are 41 cm (16 inches) in diameter. If the Earth were reduced to this size, the Moon would be a 10 cm (4 in) baseball floating 12 metres (40 feet) away. The Sun would be a beach ball 14 stories tall (somewhat smaller than the Spaceship Earth ride at Epcot) floating 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) away. While a complete model to this scale has never been built, a Solar System built centered in Washington DC, London, or Sydney, to that scale (approximately 1:31 000 000) would look like this:
| Body | Diameter | object comparison | Semi-major axis | scale model location (U.S.) | scale model location (U.K.) | scale model location (Australia) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sun | 44.6 m (146 ft) | 14 story tall sphere, Spaceship Earth (Epcot) | zero | White House, Washington DC | Buckingham Palace | Sydney Opera House |
| Mercury | 15 cm (6 in) | large grapefruit | 1.9 km (1.2 mi) | National Air and Space Museum | Covent Garden | Elizabeth Bay, New South Wales |
| Venus | 38 cm (15 in) | beach ball | 3.5 km (2.2 mi) | John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame, Arlington National Cemetery | Regent's Park | Sydney Football Stadium |
| Earth | 41 cm (16 in) | classroom globe | 4.8 km (3.0 mi) | Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport | Tower of London | Rozelle Hospital |
| Moon | 10 cm (4 in) | baseball | 12 m (40 ft) from Earth | |||
| Mars | 23 cm (9 in) | dodgeball | 7.2 km (4.5 mi) | Rock Creek Park Golf Course | King's College London | Bondi Beach, New South Wales |
| Ceres | 3 cm (1 in) | golf ball | 13.3 km (8.3 mi) | |||
| Jupiter | 4.55 m (15 ft) | Commercial van | 24.9 km (15.5 mi) | George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia | London Heathrow Airport | Scotland Island, New South Wales |
| Saturn | 3.81 m (12 ft 6 in) | Roundabout (merry-go-round) | 45.5 km (28.3 mi) | Marine Corps Base Quantico, Triangle, Virginia | Luton, Bedfordshire | Copacabana, New South Wales |
| Uranus | 1.63 m (5 ft 4 in) | average 8th grade boy | 92.2 km (57.3 mi) | Aberdeen Proving Ground, Aberdeen, Maryland | Waterlooville, Hampshire | Bombo, New South Wales |
| Neptune | 1.55 m (5 ft 1 in) | average 6th grade boy | 144.4 km (89.7 mi) | Newark, Delaware | Calais, France | Nelson Bay, New South Wales |
| Pluto | 7 cm (3 in) | baseball | 190 km (118 mi) | Wildwood, New Jersey | Saint-Valery-sur-Somme, France | Bulahdelah, New South Wales |
| Eris | 8 cm (3 in) | baseball | 325 km (202 mi) | Brooklyn, New York | Rotterdam, Netherlands | Port Macquarie, New South Wales |
| α Centauri A | 49.5 m (162 ft) | Spaceship Earth (Epcot) | 1,323,500 km (822,400 mi) | over 3 times the distance to the moon | over 3 times the distance to the moon | over 3 times the distance to the moon |
If the scale of the above model is increased to 1:310 000 000, i.e. all distances and sizes reduced by a factor of 10, then the Earth and Venus can be modeled by ping pong balls, the Moon and smaller planets by various size marbles or lumps of modeling clay, the gas giants by balloons or larger playing balls, and a circle the diameter of the Sun can be drawn on the floor of most classrooms. The scale distance to α Centauri would be 1/3 of the way to the Moon.
Read more about this topic: Solar System Model
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