Mrs. Thornton 2011

Earth= 8,000 miles in diameter Moon= 2,159 miles in diameter (which is about four times smaller than the diameter of Earth) Jupiter= over 85,000 miles in diameter ( 1,300 Earths could fit inside it! Put another way, if you had a ball that was about the size of a dime, Jupiter would be the size of a basketball!) Sun= estimated at 865,000 miles in diameter (You could fit about 1,300,000 Earths inside the Sun!) Mrs. Thornton 2011

Now, you will work in groups of 3 or 4 to guess the distance between the Moon and the Earth. Each group will have a 8-inch Styrofoam ball to represent the Earth, and a 2-inch ball to represent the Moon. (This is a 1 inch scale model;1 inch = 1,000 miles…so, an 8 inch ball=8,000 miles, The Earth, and a 2 inch ball=2,000 miles, The Moon) Place the Moon at one end and the Earth at the other; how far apart do you think they need to be? (Remember we are measuring in the smaller scale not the actual distance-we don’t have enough room for that!) Mrs. Thornton 2011

Distance from the Earth to the Moon is… 240,000 miles EarthMoon Mrs. Thornton 2011

Estimate the distance from the Earth to the Sun Stay in the same groups you measured the Earth to the Moon with. Discuss how far away you think the Earth is from the Sun. We will go outside to make our predictions. (if the weather isn’t cooperating we will try this activity in the commons or do this tomorrow) Mrs. Thornton 2011