6 OUR SOLAR SYSTEM IS A VERY SMALL PART OF ONE OF BILLIONS OF GALAXIES IN THE UNIVERSE

Task 1: Count the dimensions of the bodies and their distances in your model.

WORKSHEET


Pupils of the primary school (aged 7–11 years) are not yet able to operate with such large numbers; they do not know the concept of the ratio and with the conversion of units they work mostly intuitively. Therefore, it is necessary to simplify the tasks mathematically.

The simplest option is to directly enter several dimensional variants from which pupils choose the appropriate scale (Table 2).

Table 2: 

Body Diameter Distance from the Sun
the Sun 110 cm 0 m
Mercury 4 mm 45 m
Venus 1 cm 85 m
Earth 1 cm 120 m
Mars 5 mm 180 m
Jupiter 11 cm 600 m
Saturn 9cm (33 cm) 1 100 m
Uranus 4 cm 2 300 m
Neptune 4 cm 3 500 m

For mathematically skilled pupils it is possible to use a simplified numerical input. It is advisable to choose the size of the Earth and to calculate the size of the other bodies from this data.

Procedure:

  1. choose the diameter of the Earth
  2. Venus is approximately as big as the Earth
  3. Mercury and Mars have roughly half the diameter of the Earth (Mercury is slightly smaller than Mars)
  4. Jupiter and Saturn have roughly ten times bigger diameter than the Earth (Jupiter is a slightly bigger than Saturn, Saturn‘s rings have three times bigger diameter than Saturn itself)
  5. Uranus and Neptune have diameters four times bigger than the Earth
  6. the Sun has approximately hundred times bigger diameter than the Earth

For the distances of the planets, apply:

  1. the Earth‘s distance from the Sun is approximately a hundred times greater than the diameter of the Sun
  2. the distance of Mercury from the Sun is roughly half the distance of the Earth from the Sun
  3. the distance of Venus from the Sun is about three quarters of the Earth‘s distance from the Sun
  4. the distance of Mars from the Sun is half greater than the distance of the Earth from the Sun)
  5. the distance of Jupiter from the Sun is five times greater than the distance of the Earth from the Sun
  6. the distance of Saturn from the Sun is ten times greater than the distance of the Earth from the Sun
  7. the distance of Uranus from the Sun is twenty times greater than the distance of the Earth from the Sun
  8. the distance of Neptune from the Sun is thirty times greater than the distance of the Earth from the Sun