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Slide 1: Earth, Moon, Sun & Stars Solihull School
Slide 2: Brain Teaser Solar System Scales A Year 6 class have just completed their model of the solar system. The model looks great hanging in their classroom but before they can get a grade for their project their teacher, Mr. Mindboggler, has one more task for them to do.
Slide 3: Mr. Mindboggler reminded them:  “Remember,” he says, “that you used one scale for planet sizes and a much smaller scale for showing distances of the planets from the sun. If you had used the larger scale for the distances, your model would not have fit into the classroom, because the distances are so immense.”
Slide 4: Mr. Mindboggler's Question “If you had used the same scale for distance that you used for planet sizes, how far from your model sun would Pluto have to be placed”
Slide 5: Information needed To work out the relative planet size, the class used a pea measuring 0.5cm in diameter for their model of Mercury. The real Mercury has an actual diameter of 4800km. 6 The real Pluto is 5900 x 10 kms from the sun.
Slide 6: Calculations  O.5cm represents 4800 km, therefore 1cm represents 9600 km.  We had to find out therefore, how many cm apart Pluto was from the sun = 6 6 5900 x 10 km 59 x 10 km 9600 = 96 . = 614,583.33 cm from the sun
Slide 7: Calculations 614,583.33 cm from the sun  Divide by 100 to convert to m = 6,145.83 m from the sun  Divide by 1000 to convert to km =6.15 km from the sun  To convert to miles = km x 0.62 = 6.15 x 0.62 = 3.8 miles
Slide 8: Solution  Answer:  The model of Pluto would have to be approximately 3.8 miles or 6.15 kms away from the model Sun, where every cm represented 9600km. Now that would be a big classroom!