...and boy are my legs tired! [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

In other words, I just got done completing the solar system walk, as laid out in this page. I've been wanting to try it out for a while, and since the page came up again in another topic, and I had some free time, I said "what-the-heck". [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img] It sure was an enlightening experience.

I used the metric model as outlined in the page, and I went an extra step for accuracy. I measured out the average length of my stride and used it to calculate out the exact number of paces I'd need. I didn't bother with actually placing down "planets" though. I just tried to use my imagination, or the occasional pebble in the road, as my planets.

I went to the river park near my home and started up one side. When I finished, I crossed the river and came back down the other. It was quite a pleasant, but very long, walk. I used the bridge nearest me for the start and I ended up walking most of the length of the park! My observations:

I was surprised how compact the first 4 orbits are compared to the rest. They didn't really strike me being very far, although thinking about the small size of the planets compared to their orbits was a bit boggling. The big jump to Jupiter was a bit of a shock, but since I could still make out where the Sun would be it still didn't bother me too much.

But the big jumps beyond that were just staggering. It was 180 further paces to Saturn and about 400 paces between each of the outer 3 planets. It became impossible to see the start at around Saturn, mostly due to terrain, but even then, trying to make out a bowling-ball sized object from that distance blew my mind.

Check out the photo:


http://www.occn.zaq.ne.jp/cuaea503/images/DCP_2541.JPG

I know it's a bit difficult to see the scale in the photo, but starting from this bridge, Jupiter was at about even with the first big building on the left. Saturn was about where the 3rd building is, Uranus was on the other side of the trestle bridge in the distance, and Pluto was about even with that tall 40 story building on the right! When you realize that, at this scale, the Sun is about the size of your head, and Pluto is smaller than a pinhead, the distance is just unimaginable. Or conversely, try to spot a person's head in a window of that building. That would be the Sun if you were standing on Pluto. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img]

And the most unbelievable thing of all is knowing that this is just the radius of the orbits. In actuality, you have to imagine this as a circle around the starting point, or even a sphere many times larger than this if you include minor planetoids. And beyond that, the next star would be about as far from me as Hawaii!

I'm just going to conclude with the idea that Man was not made to comprehend distances like this. From now on, whenever I look out towards that last tower, I'll be thinking of little Pluto, a speck of sand in the middle of nothing.

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<font size="-1">PLEASE NOTE: Some quantum physics theories suggest that when the consumer is not directly observing this product, it may cease to exist or will exist only in a vague and undetermined state.</font>

<font size="-1">(fixed the photo link)</font>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: David Hall on 2002-07-15 03:49 ]</font>

With the half mile+ scale, I'm going to try to put some markers in the park behind my house. It is more than a mile round trip to go from here to the other side of the park and back. I think I'll mark off the distances on a map first. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Thanks for the info! That's pretty cool. (My, Solar System, how big you are [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img] .)

My trigonometry textbook offered directions for how you can map the orbits of the planets on a scientific (graphing) calculator. I only did the work for the four inner planets, but it was pretty cool! I was able to see why Venus is the brightest object in the sky - relatively speaking, its orbit is so very close to the Earth's! Mars' orbit, on the other hand, is pretty far out in comparison.

It is fun working out the solar system schematics in comprehendible measurements, isn't it? [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

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"As I lay beneath the Southern Cross, the stars tell more than I could" . . . David Meece

It's also half the radius that Venus is, which alone would reduce its relative brightness by 1.5 (5 / log 1/2) magnitudes.

AH! Double whammy.

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"As I lay beneath the Southern Cross, the stars tell more than I could" . . . David Meece

I forgot how I stumbled on that 'Earth is a Peppercorn' page, but I stuck it in the Astrology thread in the Against the mainstream page. The author of the 'Planet Walk' mentioned that it would be a good antidote for astrology. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

I did the walk for my daughters 2nd grade class last year during their solar system week. We walked around the outside of the playground and the kids were impressed with the distances. For older space enthusiasts, print out the planet pages from the Nine Planets site to peruse on your walk.

http://seds.seds.org/nineplanets/nin...neplanets.html

For instance, the page on the Sun had this interesting paragraph.

"The Sun's energy output (3.86e33 ergs/second or 386 billion billion megawatts) is produced by nuclear fusion reactions. Each second about 700,000,000 tons of hydrogen are converted to about 695,000,000 tons of helium and 5,000,000 tons (=3.86e33 ergs) of energy in the form of gamma rays. As it travels out toward the surface, the energy is continuously absorbed and re-emitted at lower and lower temperatures so that by the time it reaches the surface, it is primarily visible light. For the last 20% of the way to the surface the energy is carried more by convection than by radiation."

Frankly, I was shocked to discover that this much hydrogen is fused each and every second. It's ming boggling.

BTW, I'm curious. How many ergs in a joule? or watt? Which every it converts into. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]
(Isn't a watt just joules/sec?)

Kizarvexis
"Incoming! Boisenberry at 3 o'clock!"
"Cobbler in the hole! Hit the deck!" - Thomas, Hero of the Pie Wars

1 Joule = 10^7 erg = 0.239 cal = 0.738 ft.lb = 2.78*10^-7 kw.h

the above are units of energy. Watts are units of power, so no direct conversion is possible.

Wow, I am so going on this walk. I've done a couple of trials (made it all the way to Jupiter on my way back from Dairy Queen to work this afternoon [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]) but would love to take my little sisters on the whole thing some Saturday. We've got a long straight street right near our house which would be perfect for this--it goes down a hill, but I think it's a kilometer long so we wouldn't have to double back.

Astounding distances, especially when you consider the size of the planets, even Jupiter. WOW!!

The really amazing thing is, on the grand scale of the universe, or even just the galaxy, even the solar system is just a flyspec.

I find that ten times more fascinating than any conspiracy theory anyone could possibly make up.

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"Most editorials are written by people that love to argue but got kicked off debate team for not making any sense." -Seanbaby

I'm quite lazy, and not into long walks. Can I do the scale on a beer cap and use a microscope?

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You can turn it into a percentage and then scale it from there

DISTANCE TO PLANET FROM SUN X 100 /FARTHEST PLANET FROM THE SUN = X

X is the percentage that you can use to scale " example: Pluto would be 100% most of the time"

you just have to find all the distances of the orbits and plug them into this simple calculation

logicboy: The only problem with your proposition is that the distance from the Sun to Pluto isn't anywhere near constant. The eccentricity of Pluto's orbit around the Sun is a whopping 0.25.

Of course, if you abandoned the silly notion that Pluto is a planet, this wouldn't be a problem.

I just saw this thread and realized there's something like that up in Canada but much, much bigger! (I think it's in Toronto) There is a museum with a scale model of the sun and mercury at the edge of the museum's property. No big deal right? Well what they've done is set up the planets throughout the city to scale. You could go for miles and miles before you hit Pluto. I think the museum may be the ROM but...

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