8-28 Solar System Model Built to Scale!

Today in class, we built a "to-scale" model of the Solar System. (I wish I could take credit for this great idea, but I found it in the upper level Apologia Exploring Creation with Physical Science Book by Jay Wile.)

We found balls to represent the planet sizes, and we used toilet paper to measure the distance of the planets from the Sun. These are two different sizing scales, but the children are able to get "the idea" of the magnitude in God's universe!

This is what we did...(hopefully, this will help another homeschooler out there!) First, we measured out a 20' x 20' circle to represent the Sun. We used a rope to mark the outline.

Each square of toilet paper represents approx. 31,000,000 miles! Yes, one square = 31 million miles!

Planet - - Representation - -Distance on Toilet Paper

Sun - -20' x 20' circle of rope - - begin toilet paper roll
Mercury - - small marble - - 1st square
Venus - - golf ball - - 2nd square
Earth - - golf ball - - 3rd square
Mars - - large marble - - 5th square
- - Asteroid Belt - -
Jupiter - - large beach ball - - 15th square
Saturn - - basketball - - 30th square
Uranus - - softball - - 60th square
Neptune - - baseball - - 89th square
Pluto - - bb pellet - - 90th square

It was amazing to see the distance of the planets from the sun. Additionally, the relative enormity of the Sun in relation to the planets. God is amazing! We serve an incredible God! In the picture below, all of the students are standing inside the "Sun," and the black ball in front of them represents Jupiter. Whoa!


Finally, we also learned a mnemonic to remember the correct order of the planets.

My Very Educated Mother Just Showed Us Nine Planets. Every word begins with the same letter as the planet's name. (Although Pluto has been "declassified" as a planet, I would encourage your students to know that is was a planet at one time. My children will memorize all nine, but feel free to have your child stop at Neptune if you desire. The mnemonic can be "My Very Educated Mother Just Showed Us Neptune.")

We discussed some of the topics from Chapter One. This week, I have encouraged the students to memorize the above mnemonic to recite the order of the planets from memory. Your child should be able to tell you the "inner planets" and the "outer planets."

We are off the a great start! I am enjoying your children tremendously! Based on the photo below, at least one boy enjoyed class today! Ha-ha!

Next week we will be doing some experiments to explore the heat of the Sun, and exploring the difference between rotation, revolution, and orbit.