A walk in the park?

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---------------------------------------------.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Eight planets and a dwarf planet in our Solar System, approximately to scale. Pluto is a dwarf planet at far right.  

At far left is the Sun. The planets are, from left, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.Pluto is not considered a planet but according to source, might still be included as a main planet.1
The exercise on this page will give your brain exercise as well as your legs!
Plan ahead. Choose a very large field or a very long straight path.
The distance in the model adds up to 1,019 paces. A mile is 1,760 yards.
Take "paces" with a pinch of salt. A handful of children is involved. A solution is given later.
If you manage to read it in one go, take immediate restorative action!
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The fact is that the planets are mighty small (universally speaking) and the distances between them are almost ridiculously large (solarly speaking). To make any representation with a scale that is true for the planets sizes and distances, we must go outdoors.

The following exercise could be called a Model, a Walk or a Happening. Since it is simple (!), it is suitable for all ages.

There is someone who will profitably take the planet-walk - - - you the leader, alone. Reading the following description is no substitute: you must go out and take the steps and look at the distances, if group-awe is to set in.

Now skim through for a while. Don't dwell on anything. Then make the decision to walk the walk - ie read it thoroughly. If you plan to use all this, you must do everything here to be of any use to anyone.

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In time, collect a box of all this (sans poles). Calipers would be useful.

First, collect the objects you need. They are:

Sun - any ball, diameter c 8.00 inches
Mercury - a pinhead, diameter 0.03 inch - keep it on the pin
Venus - a peppercorn, diameter 0.08 inch
Earth - a second peppercorn
Mars - a second pinhead
Jupiter - a chestnut or a pecan, diameter 0.90 inch
Saturn - a hazelnut or an acorn, diameter 0.70 inch
Uranus - a peanut or coffeebean, diameter 0.30 inch
Neptune - a second peanut or coffeebean
Collect several of each except the ball. Keep them in tubs - - with good lids.
The items are best stuck to paper side-plates.
pagetop here

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You may suspect it is easier to search out pebbles of the right sizes. But the advantage of distinct objects such as peanuts is that their rough sizes are remembered along with them. It does not matter if the peanut is not exactly .3 inch long; nor that it is not spherical.

A standard bowling ball happens to be just 8 inches wide, and makes a nice massive Sun, There are plenty of inflatable balls which are near enough in size.

The three pins must be stuck through pieces of card, otherwise their heads will be virtually invisible. If you like, you can fasten the other planets onto labelled cards or cardboard plates.

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Begin by spilling the objects out on a table and setting them in a row. Here is the moment to remind everyone of the number of planets -8- and their order--

Write MVEMJSUN on a flipchart or blackboard. Say it's a memory aid.

My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nuts

Ask the children who would like to be Mercury then Venus etc.

Others can be carriers, notetakers etc.

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The first astonishment is the contrast between the great round looming Sun and the tiny planets. (And note a proof of the difference between reading and seeing: if it were not for the picture, the figures such as "8 inches" and ".08 inch" would create little impression.) Look at the second peppercorn--our "huge" Earth--up beside the truly huge curve of the Sun.

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Having set out the objects with which the model is to be made, the next thing is to ask: "How much space do we need to make it?" Participants may think that the table-top will suffice, or a fraction of it, or merely moving the objects apart a little. Some may think in terms of the room or a fraction of the room, or perhaps the corridor outside.

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1. To arrive at the answer, we must introduce scale.
2. The peppercorn is the Earth we live on.
3. The Earth is eight thousand miles wide!
4. The peppercorn is eight hundredths of an inch wide.
5. What about the Sun? It is eight hundred thousand miles wide.
6. The ball representing it is eight inches wide. So, one inch in the model represents a hundred thousand miles in reality.
7. This means that one yard (36 inches) represents 3,600,000 miles. Take a pace: this distance across the floor is an enormous space-journey called "three million six hundred thousand miles."

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What is the distance between the Earth and the Sun?

It is 93 million miles. In the model, this will be 26 yards.

This still may not mean much till you get one of the group to start at the side of the room and take 26 long paces.

He comes up against the opposite wall at about 15 if you are lucky!

Clearly, it will be necessary to go outside. Walk it before involving participants.

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It's best for the group to prepare all the indicators before the day.

While you are talking and introducing the idea of the model, it may be helpful (depending on the age of the audience) to build up on a blackboard something like this:

real in model

Earth's width 8,000 miles 8/100 inch

Sun's width 800,000 miles 8 inches

therefore scale is 100,000 miles 1 inch

3,600,000 miles 36 inches or 1 yard

Sun-Earth distance 93,000,000 miles 26 yards

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You will have found in advance a spot from which you can walk a thousand yards in something like a straight line. This may not be easy. Straightness of the course is not essential; nor do you have to be able to see one end of it from the other. Unlikely.

It's even more effective if there is a long, straight line, however.

You may have to "fold" it back on itself. It should be a unit that will make a good story afterwards like "All the way from the flagpole to the cricket pavillion!"

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The last prep

"Paces" later are variable. It's better to use long, thick bamboos or something similar and measure out 10 yards. Incorporate "hinges" or carry duct tape.

Also plan to carry 3ft high bamboo etc stakes on which to attach the planets.

It's also best to use paper/cardboard plates with the "planet" stuck in place. Edit in your mind when you read " ..put down his/her card and pinhead". Same re "weighting them with a pebble if necessary". You don't need them.

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on the day

Put the Sun ball down, and march away as follows. (After the first few planets, you will want to appoint someone else to do the actual pacing-call this person the "Spacecraft" or "Pacecraft"-so that you are free to talk.)"

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10 paces. Call out "Mercury, where are you?" and have the Mercury-bearer put down his card and pinhead, weighting them with a pebble if necessary.

Another 9 paces. Venus puts down her peppercorn.

Another 7 paces. Earth

Already the thing seems beyond belief. Mercury is supposed to be so close to the Sun that it is merely a scorched rock, and we never see it except in the Sun's glare at dawn or dusk-yet here it is, utterly lost in space! As for the Earth, who can believe that the Sun could warm us if we are that far from it?

The correctness of the scale can be proved to sceptics (of a certain maturity) on the spot. The apparent size of the Sun ball, 26 paces away, is now the same as that of the real Sun-half a degree of arc, or half the width of your little finger held at arm's length. (If both the size of an object and its distance have been scaled down by the same factor, then the angle it portends must remain the same.)

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Another 14 paces. Mars

Now come the gasps, at the first substantially larger leap:

Another 95 paces to Jupiter

Here is the "giant planet"-but it is a chestnut, more than a city large block of flats from its nearest neighbour in space!

From now on, amazement itself cannot keep pace, as the intervals grow extravagantly:

Another 112 paces. Saturn

Another 249 paces. Uranus

Another 281 paces. Neptune

Another 242 paces. Pluto

You have marched more than half a mile! (The distance in the model adds up to 1,019 paces. A mile is 1,760 yards.)

To do this, look back toward the Sun ball, which is no longer visible even with binoculars.

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That is the outline of the Thousand-Yard Model. But be warned that if you do it once you may be asked to do it again.

So the outline can bear variation and elaboration. There are different things you can remark on during the pacings from one planet to the next, and there are extra pieces of information that can easily be grafted on.

I recommend that you stop reading at this point, carry out the walk once, and then read the further notes.

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Follow-up

Having come to the end of the walk, you may turn your group around and retrace your steps. Re-counting the numbers gives a second chance to learn them, and looking for the little objects re-emphasizes how lost they are in space. Ensure that large cards are used.

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It works well, in this sense: everyone pays attention to the last few counts- "240...241...242"-wondering whether Neptune will come into view. But it does not work well if the peanut cannot be found, which is all too likely; so you should, if you plan to do this, place the objects on cards, or set markers beside them (large stones, or flags such as the pennants used on bicycles).

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Also, the Sun ball perhaps cannot be left by itself at the beginning of the walk, it might be carried off by a covetous person if not by the wind, so send someone back for it when the walk has progressed as far as Mars.

On each card, the group-member who recovers it may write briefly the place where it was-"At the goal post," "At John Dunlop's house"... Then, at home, the objects as kept in a Tupperware etc box on a shelf, as a reminder of the walk. Or they may be hung on strings from a rafter. Keep notes of how each event went.

Since pecans, pinheads, peanuts, and especially peppercorns cannot always be readily found when another demonstration is called for, I keep at least one other set in a suitable tub.

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Some readers will know how to find the source of all this before a fair amount of editing took place. (If you don't know please see foot of page) Others may be fluent with the exercise. Please step forward.

Editing the original has taken ages hence for example "paces" now = yards defined by a 10ft pole.

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When you are ready - The Eight Solar Planets are here.

How's your VEM off for dripping? more

more info and source via https://rossu3asciencegroup.yolasite.com/solarsize.php

Ottwell, Guy. The Thousand Yard Model or the Earth as a Peppercorn. London: Universal Workshop, 1989 "A standard bowling ball happens to be just 8 inches wide, and makes a nice massive Sun, so I couldn't resist putting it in the picture." moreEnter your text here...