The Toilet Paper Solar System
Activity:
Students make a distance-scale solar system model with toilet paper.
Science Standards
Scientific Models (scale)
Objectives:
The student will identify attributes to classify planets in our solar system.
The student will draw and describe one planetary object.
The student will observe the relative distance between planets.
Materials:
pictures of the solar system
10 large white sheets of poster board
coloring markers
reference books for pictures of the planets
one roll of traditional school-grade bond toilet paper
Introduction:
Interplanetary travel is extremely difficult due to the almost unimaginable
distances between the planets in our solar system. Voyager II, traveling
at nearly 50,000 mph took 12 years to reach the planet Neptune. We can
make a scale model of the distances between the planets using almost anything
as our reference. In doing so, we may be able to determine a variety of
ways to classify the planets of our solar system. It is almost impossible
to make a scale model of the solar system that is correct in both planetary
diameter and distance. Using a 1 m Sun and a 5 mm Earth, Pluto is found
almost one half mile away; using 1 sheet = 10,000,000 miles.
Directions:
1. Using the large poster paper, illustrate in detail the Sun and each
of the nine planets on individual sheets (one object per sheet). Write
interesting facts about the object on the back of the poster.
2. Place all of the posters at the front of the room. List as many ways
as possible to classify (group) them by the appearance of the posters.
3. Using a roll of school-grade toilet tissue, mark off the distances
to the planets using a scale of one tissue = 10,000,000 miles (refer to
the sheet on the following page). Have an individual hold a planet-poster
at each of the appropriate distances.
4. List some more ways to classify the planets by various attributes.
THE TOILET PAPER SOLAR SYSTEM
SCALE MODE:
Using a scale of 1 standard sheet of toilet tissue as 10,000,000 miles,
we can use the unwound length of the roll of tissue as a ruler for a scale
model of the solar system.
|
Celestial Object
|
Number of Sheets from Sun
|
# of Tissues from previous object
|
| Sun |
0.0
|
0.0
|
| Mercury |
3.6
|
3.6
|
| Venus |
6.7
|
3.1
|
| Earth |
9.3
|
2.6
|
| Mars |
14.1
|
4.8
|
| Jupiter |
48.4
|
34.3
|
| Saturn |
88.7
|
40.3
|
| Uranus |
178.6
|
90
|
| Neptune |
280.0
|
101.0
|
| Pluto (avg. orbit) |
366.4
|
86.4
|
Q. Alpha Centari is the closest visible star to our Sun. How
many sheets away is it?
Answer:
It is located 25,000,000,000,000 miles away or 2,500,000 sheets away (200
miles on this scale).
In this model, the Sun is 0.4 inch in diameter and the Earth is 0.001
inch in diameter.