Relative scale of things

[mikesim (Mike)]

Trying to get my head around the relative distances involved in space has always been a challenge for me. So rather than try and understand something so vast, I thought I might shrink it down (dumb it down??). I hope my maths is right?
Assuming the Earth was 1 cm in diameter
-the moon would be 30cm away from earth and 2.7mm wide
-the sun would be 118m away from earth and 1.1 metres wide
-mars would be 63m away from earth and 0.5cm wide
-Jupiter would be 492 metres away from earth and 11cm wide
-Saturn would be 1km away from earth and 9cm wide
-Uranus would be 2.1km away and 4cm wide
-Neptune would be 3.4km away and 4cm wide
-alpha cent would be 41 return trips to the moon away and 1.1metres wide
-Gliese 581g would be 212 return trips to the moon away and 1.6 cm wide. The fastest we've travelled is 11.1km/sec (apollo 11?) and it would take us 600,000 years to get there at that speed?
-We better start working on those alternative means of propulsion quick smart haha.
-On the above scale of the sun being 1.1 meters wide, NML Cygni would be 1.8 KM's wide

[scagman (John)]

Hi Mike, yes its mind blowing when you try and imgine the size of things out there.

Have you seen this http://htwins.net/scale2/?bordercolor=white , its come up a few times. It amazes me each time I have a paly with it.

Cheers

[PCH (Paul)]

Hey Mike,

interesting stuff for sure.

I'm just looking at your last comparison .... "Gliese 581g would be 212 return trips to the moon away and 1.6 cm wide. The fastest we've travelled is 11.1km/sec (apollo 11?) and it would take us 600,000 years to get there at that speed?"

If I'm not mistaken, wasn't the moon four space flight days away on the Apollo missions. That's 8 days there and back. 212 of those would be 1696 days, or 4.64 years at Apollo speeds - a bit less than 600,000 years ! Have I missed something, or am I barking up the wrong tree? I suspect it's more than 212 return trips to the moon.

All the best

[mikesim (Mike)]

Hey PCH,
With the earth at 1cm wide, then the apollo would probably be a big as a neutron and our observed distance to the moon would be that much greater for the tiny apollo. So 11km/sec in our scale shrunk down to an Earth thats 1cm wide would mean the tiny apollo would take 11 minutes to traverse the diameter of the 1cm earth.
I wonder how you would calculate ship time at 11km/sec for 600,000 years or is it so slow it wouldnt be a noticable difference compared to earth time?

[Aidan (Aidan)]

http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/so...tem/index.html

This is a cool spread sheet to give sizes and distances.

http://nightsinbrightsaturn.files.wo...2012/08/8a.jpg

*Above* I built a scale model a couple of weeks ago, to the right is my little helper.

Distances are to scale the sizes of the planets are not. (they would not have been visible)

Distances based on a 2mm in diameter Sun

[mikesim (Mike)]

Hey thanks Aiden,
If I had that link before it would have saved me setting up the spreadsheet!
I've got a property about 1Km long so may layout a solar system myself with the sun at 1m diameter. It'll cut off at Saturn haha.
If you or any other Melbournites want a reasonably dark sky site to use, let me know. I'm 2 hrs from the CBD in Gippsland and although a novice, I have a dob coming soon that should provide some decent views.
Cheers