What exactly does it mean to create a scale model of the solar system
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What exactly does it mean to create a scale model of the solar system

[From: ] [author: ] [Date: 11-05-03] [Hit: ]
-It means the instructor doesnt understand what he/she is really asking for.A scale model takes each characteristic length of each important feature of the thing being modelled, then reduces each of those lengths by the same scale factor.That means you get to choose 1 length scale, then you have to use the ratio between that length and the length of the real object to scale down every other length in your model.For example,......

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I have seen some figures about scale models of the solar system. If the Sun is a foot in diameter, Pluto is about a mile away from it, and Earth is about 1/10 inch in diameter. The photos you show are not to scale.

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It means the instructor doesn't understand what he/she is really asking for.

A scale model takes each characteristic length of each important feature of the thing being modelled, then reduces each of those lengths by the same scale factor.

That means you get to choose 1 length scale, then you have to use the ratio between that length and the length of the real object to scale down every other length in your model.

For example, if you choose the sun to be a ping-pong ball, then the scale factor r = (diameter of ping-pong ball) / (diameter of sun)

Then for giggles and grins, you can estimate how far away you'd have to put the earth by multiplying 93 million miles by r.

Once you see what I'm getting at, you might think that you should choose that length scale to be one that would allow the solar system to fit on your desktop (about 3 feet). So r = (3 feet) / (2 * orbital radius of Neptune)

Then for giggles and grins you can multiply the diameter of the earth by r, and you should find that the model earth is so small that the only thing you have to build is a tiny pin-head of a sun.

[Your instructor probably wants you to build a model of the solar system; not a scale model.]
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