Media Activity 1 Scale of the Universe Answer Sheet (1) (1)

Media Activity 1 Scale of the Universe LESSON 1 1. How far away is the Moon in terms of Earth’s diameter (see Figure 1-1)? (answer numerically) _ 30 times diameter_ ___ 2. (a) What is the diameter of the Sun when it compares to the diameter of the Moon’s orbit around Earth? (b) The diameter of Earth? (answer both numerically) (a) _ 1.8 ____ (b) _ 109 times Earth’s diameter ____ 3. How far is Jupiter from the Sun in Astronomical Units (AU)? (The distance between Earth and the Sun is 1 AU.) (answer numerically) __ 5.2AU ___ 4. (a) How far is Pluto from the Sun in AU? (b) How many times farther from the sun is Pluto than Jupiter? (answer both numerically) (a) __ 39AU ___ (b) _ 7.5 times farther ____ LESSON 2 5. (a) If the Sun were the size of a grapefruit (13.7 cm), what would be the size of Jupiter? (b) On this voyager scale, how far from the Sun would Jupiter be? (c) How far would Pluto be from the Sun on this scale? (d) How far away would the Earth be? (answer numerically) (a) __ 1.43cm ___ (b) _ 78m ____ (c) __ 593m~600m ___ (d) __15m___ 6. (a) If the Sun were the size of a grapefruit (13.7 cm), the nearest star, Alpha Centauri, also would be about the size of a grapefruit. How far away from the Sun would Alpha Centauri be (voyager scale model)? (b) On this voyager scale, what location in the United States would correspond to this distance from Washington, D.C. (see Figure 1-2)? (answer numerically) (a) _ 4174km~2,600miles_ ___ (answer single word of location in Fig. 1-2) (b) _ Seattle ____ 7. Based on how long it takes light to travel from the Sun to Earth, and the distance between the Sun and Earth in this voyager scale model, determine the speed of light on the scale of the Solar System Scale Model on the Mall in Washington, D.C. (see Figure 1-2). (answer numerically) __ About 2 meters per minute (3.3 cm/sec = 3.3 E-2/sec ____ 8. (a) What is the distance between the Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxies in light scale model? (b) About how many times the Milky Way or Andromeda Galaxy’s size is this distance in light years? (answer numerically) (a) __ 2.3km ___ (b) _ 25 LESSON 3 9. (a) What is a light-year in definition? (b) How far is a light-year in meters? (c) In AU? Write your answers in both regular and scientific notation. Use the tool shown in Figure 1-3 to help you convert from meters to AU. (a) __ The distance light travels in one year ____ (answer numerically) (b) _ 9.461 E 15 ____ (c) _ 6.3 E 4 AU ~63,241 AU ____ 10. The speed of light is about 3 x 10 8 meters per second. (a) Write this number in regular notation. The speed of light can also be expressed as 186,000 miles per second. (b) Write this number in scientific notation. (answer numerically) (a) _ 299,792,458 ~ 300,000,000 ____ (b) _ 1.86 E 5 ____ 11. For each pair of objects in the table below, estimate the ratio of the distance between the objects to their size. Obtain the distances for your estimates from the order of magnitude tool shown in Figure 1-3. List the pairs from the smallest to the largest ratios. Object Approximate Size Distance to Distance/Size Milky Way Galaxy 100,000 ly Andromeda Galaxy = 2.5 million ly 25 Sun 10^9 m Alpha Centauri = 4.4 ly 4 x 107 Jupiter 10^8 m Sun = 5.2 AU 75.000 Earth 10^7 m Earth to Moon =3.8 x 108 m 30 12. (a) Which distance to size ratio is the largest? (b) The smallest? (c) Which two of the distance-size ratios from question 11 are most similar in order of magnitude? Milky Way: Andromeda and Earth-Moon