Scale of The Gainesville Solar System Walk
The Gainesville Solar System Walk will use a four billion to one scale (4,000,000,000:1). This allows the solar system from the Sun to Pluto to fit within a 0.9 mile piece of N.W. 8 Avenue, the approximate distance from N.W. 34 Street to N.W. 23 Street, an almost level, straight stretch of road. In addition, the sizes (diameters) of the Sun and planets will also be scaled to size using the same 4 billion to one ratio.
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Project Design Measurements
Prepared by Howard L. Cohen
University of Florida
February 23, 1999
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Actual Sizes |
These Columns Show Sizes for Model1 |
| Object |
Orbit Radius |
Object Diameter |
Scaled Orbit Radius |
Scaled Object Diameter |
| |
(kilometers) |
(kilometers) |
(meters) |
(feet) |
(millimeters) |
(inches) |
| 1. Sun |
--- |
|
1,392,000 |
--- |
|
--- |
|
348.0 |
13.70 |
| 2. Mercury |
57,900,000 |
|
4,879 |
14.48 |
|
47.5 |
|
1.2 |
0.05 |
| 3. Venus |
108,200,000 |
|
12,104 |
27.05 |
|
88.7 |
|
3.0 |
0.12 |
| |
| 4. Earth2 |
149,600,000 |
|
12,756 |
37.40 |
|
122.7 |
|
3.2 |
0.13 |
| Moon |
384,500 |
3 |
3,476 |
96.13 |
4 |
(3.8) |
5 |
0.9 |
0.03 |
| |
| 5. Mars |
227,900,000 |
|
6,794 |
56.98 |
|
186.9 |
|
1.7 |
0.07 |
| 6. Jupiter |
778,300,000 |
|
142,980 |
194.58 |
|
638.4 |
|
35.7 |
1.41 |
| 7. Saturn |
1,429,400,000 |
|
120,540 |
357.35 |
|
1,172.4 |
|
30.1 |
1.19 |
| 8. Uranus |
2,875,000,000 |
|
51,120 |
718.75 |
|
2,358.1 |
|
12.8 |
0.50 |
| 9. Neptune |
4,504,400,000 |
|
49,530 |
1,126.10 |
|
3,694.6 |
|
12.4 |
0.49 |
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| 10. Pluto2 |
5,915,800,000 |
|
2,300 |
1,478.95 |
6 |
4,852.2 |
6 |
0.6 |
0.02 |
| Charon |
19,100 |
3 |
1,200 |
4.78 |
4 |
(0.2) |
5 |
0.3 |
0.01 |
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Notes
1The scale factor adopted for this model is 4,000,000,000 :1
2Both Earth and Pluto are actually "double planets"—including their companions (Moon and Charon respectively) is optional.
3The orbit radii of the Moon and Charon are their distances from Earth and Pluto respectively.
4For Moon and Charon, scaled orbit radius is this column is in millimeters.
5For Moon and Charon, scaled orbit radius in this column is in inches.
6The scaled distance from the Sun to Pluto is 1.479 kilometers (about 0.919 miles).
Additional Notes:
- Orbit radii are actually mean distances of each object from Sun (or from Earth for Moon, and from Pluto for Charon).
- Object diameters are equatorial diameters; for Jovian planets, diameters are at 1 bar pressure (101.325 kPa).
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