Physical Science 101

Solar System Assignment:

If you wanted to make a scale model of the solar system...

How big and far - Consider Earth to be a one-foot diameter ball, about the size of a basketball.  Let's see how large the Sun would be in comparison.  The diameter of Earth is listed as 12.7 x 10³ km .  The radius of the Sun is given as 6.96 x 10⁸ m.  The diameter of the Sun is twice the radius, or about 1.4 x 10⁹ m.  Setting the diameters of Earth and Sun in proportion,

This would compare to placing a basketball next to a sphere as tall as an 8 ½ - story building. The Sun is very large indeed!

Now, let's put our Earth's distance from the Sun into perspective.  Again consider Earth to be a one-foot diameter ball, about the size of a basketball.  Let's see how far the Sun would be from the soccer ball. The distance between Earth and Sun is listed as 1.00 AU in the table on page 547.  One astronomical unit  (AU) equals 1.496 x 10⁸ km according to the footnotes for the table.

Setting the diameter of Earth and distance to Sun in proportion,

This would compare to placing a basketball about 2 ¼ miles from the 8 ½ - story sphere representing the Sun. The Sun is a long way from Earth!

Use the method described to find the relative sizes of the Moon and Mars compared to a one-foot diameter Earth. Then determine how far each object would be from a one-foot diameter Earth.

In calculating relative diameters and distances, be sure to include units.

1. Relative size of Moon.

2. Relative size of Mars.

3. Relative distance to Moon.

Mars
4. Mars makes the news regularly. A number of unmanned missions have been sent to this planet and more are planned. Assignment: Locate a site on the internet or source in the library and in a paragraph summarize essential findings of one mission to Mars

Origin of the Moon
5. The origin of the Moon remains a mystery. Assignment: Which hypothesis do you favor? Locate a site on the internet or (perhaps more credible) source in the library and state reasons for and against this hypothesis.

Planets of our Solar System
6. What problems would exist if we were to try living on each of the other planets in our solar system? What is special about Earth? How about the moon?

7. On which planet of the solar system would a 200 lb astronaut weigh the least and the most? How much would they weigh? (Hint: use the table below - Surface gravity)