Task 2: Make a model of the solar system using foods of a round shape.

The fastest variant of the production of the solar system model is its creation from balls of different sizes, preferably using round foods (fruits, vegetables, nuts, spices...). At the end, children also receive a sweet reward.

The basic objective of this task is to acquaint pupils with real distances between the bodies of the solar system considering their dimensions. If we choose the Earth diameter of 1 cm, we would need a circle with a radius of 3.5 km for the distribution of all planets. Such a solar system would take for example the territory of the town of Pardubice. In this area there would be only the Sun with a diameter of 1 m, four planets of the size of a citrus, four planets of the size of nuts and peas, and then a large number of small bodies with the size of specks of dust. The idea of such large sizes can be difficult for pupils. So we can try different scales.

In order to fit the solar system in the classroom, it would be necessary to shrink all dimensions roughly by thousand times. This model would then take up a circle with a radius of 3.5 m. At this distance, Neptune of the size of four hundredths of a millimetre would orbit the Sun of the size of 1 mm. The diameter of the Earth would be one hundredth of a millimetre, the diameter of the largest planet Jupiter‘s would be then a tenth of a millimetre. This model of barely visible space bodies is not very illustrative.

We can try a compromise that is perhaps most imaginable, especially if we can run out on the pitch: the solar system of the size of four football pitches, with the Sun in its centre with the diameter of 3 cm. The Earth with a third millimetre diameter would orbit at the distance of about 3 m, the largest planet Jupiter with the diameter of 3 mm would circulate at the distance of 17 m. The outermost planet Neptune, with the diameter of 1 mm, would then orbit around the Sun at the distance of 100 m (Fig. 4).