Re: Is it possible to draw the entire solar system to scale on an A4 size piece of paper ?

Date: Mon Oct 27 07:00:58 2008
Posted By: John Link, Senior Staff Physicist
Area of science: Astronomy
ID: 1225081126.As

Message:

It can be done, but the scale is very small. If you go to this "Build a Solar System" calculator you will find that, in order to get the entire Solar system onto a single A4 sheet, the Sun must be only 0.001" diameter, in which case Jupiter will be 0.0001" diameter and all the other planets are so small that they are not even listed. At that scale the orbit of Pluto has a radius of 4.24". If you make the Sun 1" diameter then the orbital radius of Pluto is over 354 feet! The Solar System is large compared to the size of the Sun.

John Link, MadSci Physicist

Current Queue | Current Queue for Astronomy | Astronomy archives

Try the links in the MadSci Library for more information on Astronomy.