Solar System to Scale

[Silent_Rebel]

Does anyone know where I can find a diagram/model of the solar system that is to scale (size and distance)?

 

[Mary]

It'd be really hard to make.. and see. Best of luck!

 

[Kidege]

xkcd, though not really. The planets are represented as holes in the ground. (Don't have the link with me.)

 

[Tyria]

Not quite a model, but you might find it to your liking.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celestia

I hope it helps

 

[Latro]

If you wanted to make it out in 3 dimensions, you would have an issue. The Sun is so much larger than any of the other objects, and the distances vary so much among the planets, that to keep the scale precise you would need a great deal of space all in all.

 

[The Frood]

Microsoft's World Wide Telescope (free)

Universe sandbox (requires small donation)

 

[Agent Intellect]

If you wanted to make it out in 3 dimensions, you would have in issue. The Sun is so much larger than any of the other objects, and the distances very so much among the planets, that to keep the scale precise you would need a great deal of space all in all.

This.

If you had the sun about the size of a baseball, you'd need a football field to fit the rest of the solar system in it, if done to scale. That, and Mars is about 1.5 AU from the sun (1 AU being equal to the average distance of the earth from the sun), with Jupiter about 5.2 AU from the sun - there is a huge gap there, and then another doubling with almost 10 AU to Saturn, then 30 AU to Neptune. There is a lot of boring, empty space that most school science fare models leave out, understandably (although I do think it takes away from the incredible size of our solar system).

 

[Hawkeye]

Jodrell Bank - Greater Manchester, UK

There is a scale model of the solar system within the garden that surrounds the dish. Pluto is a good 15 minute walk away from the sun ^^


Peppercorn solar system This gives you an idea of the size of the Solar System when scaling the Earth to the size of a peppercorn.

This website isn't very good but does what you ask albeit it in the crappest way possible...

 

[Malt]

http://primaxstudio.com/stuff/scale_of_universe.swf

 

[walfin]

To what scale?

I think logarithmic scale might be possible, for a real life model.

 

[Trebuchet]

Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. They have a scale model in front, made in bronze, with orbits and everything. http://www.griffithobs.org/exhibits/bexterior.html

There are many others, possibly including a museum in your area. The largest is in Peoria, Illinois, USA. http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/11386

And the National Mall in Washington, DC has one. It turns out Wikipedia has a list of them at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_system_model.

If you are trying to make or display one, at least you can leave out Pluto. The same Wikipedia article has a description for how to make one, using candy sprinkles for planets. However, at that scale, it will probably be bigger than your entire school, and it would be hard to find the sprinkles.