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How Big Is The UNIVERSE?
Worksheet
Small numbers
0.1  10-1
0.01  102
0.001  103
How to multiply:
103 10 2  ?  1032  105
1,000 100  100,000
103 10 2  1032  101  10
Now try this:
105  104  ?  109
1050  1051  ?  10101
10 2  1,000  ?  10
2 10  (3 10 )  ?  6 10
2 10  (5 10 )  ?  10
2 10  (6 10 )  ?  1.2 10
1.2 10  (2.5 10 )  ?  3 10
3
9
3
9
3
9
3
12
13
13
9
12
1. How big is the Earth?
Equatorial diameter of Earth is 12,756 km.
Units: 1 mile = 63360 inches or about 6.3  10 4 inches
1 mile = 1.60934 kilometers or about 1.6 kilometers
 How many miles is the Earth’s diameter?
12756km*1mi/1.6km = 7972.5mi
 Calculate the equatorial circumference of Earth= ???
  d  3.14  12756km  40,074 km
  d  3.14  7973mi  25035mi
 Earth’s diameter is twice as large as Mars’s, this is what is called the “SCALE
FACTOR”. How many times is the area of Earth larger than the area of Mars?
4
 How many times is the volume of Earth larger than the volume of Mars?
8
2. How big is the Solar system?
Sun = 8.7 inch diameter size 5 basketball
Sun’s diameter is 1,377,648 km or 861,030 miles
 How many miles are represented by 1 inch in our model, approximately?
861030mi/8.7inch=98969mi/inch or close to 100,000mi/inch
1 inch represents about 100,000 miles
 What is the scale factor?
63360 * 98969  6.3 *109
1
 1.59 *10 10  1.6 *10 10
63360 * 98969
 How small would you be in this model?
1.5m *1.6 *10 10  2.4 *1010 m
 How small is Earth in this model? Compute its diameter.
7973mi * 63360inch / mi *1.6 *10 10  0.08in
 How big is Jupiter in this model? Jupiter’s diameter is 142740km
Convert to inches, 1 mi = 1.6 km and 1 mi = 63360 inches
142740km = ……………………………………….
Use scale factor to convert tour model
…………………………………………………….
Sun-size 5 basketball, diameter 8.7 inches
Mercury-a pinhead, diameter 0.03 inch
Venus-a peppercorn, diameter 0.08 inch
Earth-a second peppercorn
Mars-a second pinhead
Jupiter-a chestnut or a pecan, diameter 1 inch
Saturn-a hazelnut or an acorn, diameter 0.7 inch
Uranus-a peanut or coffee bean, diameter 0.3 inch
Neptune-a second peanut or coffee bean
Pluto- a third pinhead (or smaller, since Pluto is the smallest object, not even a planet)
 How much space do you need to assemble our model of the Solar system?
A table?
This room?
Kinawa Middle School?
Okemos?
Michigan?
Distances between Planets Table
Planet
Mean Distance
Mean Distance in
From Sun (millions AU
of miles)
Mean Diameter
(miles)
Mercury
36.0
0.39
3,031
Venus
67.1
0.72
7,521
Earth
92.9
1.00
7,926
Mars
141.5
1.52
4,221
Jupiter
483.4
5.20
88,734
Saturn
886.7
9.54
74,566
Uranus
1,782.7
19.14
31,566
Neptune
2,794.3
30.06
30,199
Pluto
3,666.1
39.53
1,450
In our model 1 inch = 100,000 miles or 105 miles.
One pace is about 1 yard or 36 inches.
 How many miles are represented by one pace?
1 pace =36 inches = ? miles
Calculate distances of all planets from the sun in our model.
Planet:
Distance from Sun 36 106 mi
How many paces?...............................
Planet
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Pluto
Distance in paces from Sun or previous planet
Distance in paces from Sun
AU – Astronomical Unit = distance from Earth to Sun = about 93 million miles or 9.3  107 miles
Speed of light is 186,282 miles per second
 How many times will light travel along Earth’s equator in one second?
Equator is about 25,000 miles, # of times = ……………………………………
 How long does the light travel from Sun to Earth?
Distance = 92.9 million miles, time = ………………………………………….
 How long from Earth to Mars? Why is it important?
Use AU: Earth to Mars closest distance is 1.5AU – 1AU = 0.5 AU, time = ?.......
Farthest distance in AU = …………………………………………
Time = ? …………………………………………………………..
 How long from Sun to Pluto?
Distance = 39.5AU, time = ? …………………………………………..
 How long does light travel one pace in our model?
3. How far is it to the closest star?
 What is a light year? ly = how many miles?
Speed of light is 186282miles/sec
 How many paces is Proxima Centauri away from us in our model?
Distance is 4 ly
How many miles?...................................
How many paces if one pace represents 3.6 million miles?...................................
One pace is 36 inches, how many inches away is Proxima Centauri from us in our
model?
One mile is 63360 inches, how many miles?
Where on the map?
4. How big is the Milky way?
Diameter = 100–120 kly (31–37 kpc) [kly means kilo ly or 1,000 ly, 100 kly means 100
thousand light years]
Distance = 100,000 ly
Diameter in miles = ? (use the distance to Proxima Centauri!)................................
Where on the map?