Alien Shrinkage
Our life-giving sun is approximately 800,000 miles in diameter. Suppose an alien space vehicle invaded our solar system, and using technology far beyond our comprehension, somehow reduced our sun to a diameter of 9 ft. And then, being amused at their accomplishment, they reduced the rest of our solar system proportionately.
Based upon the reduction is sun size, how would you estimate the following sizes and distances?:
a. Earth's diameter (inches)
b. Mars diameter (inches)
c. the distance from Earth to Mars (feet)
d. the distance from Earth to the Moon (inches)
e. the distance from our Sun to the nearest star, Proxima Centauri (miles ... which are also reduced proportionately)
Based upon the reduction is sun size, how would you estimate the following sizes and distances?:
a. Earth's diameter (inches)
b. Mars diameter (inches)
c. the distance from Earth to Mars (feet)
d. the distance from Earth to the Moon (inches)
e. the distance from our Sun to the nearest star, Proxima Centauri (miles ... which are also reduced proportionately)
posted by Zaux at
8:15 AM
10 Comments:
Assuming distances are measured from the centre of the planet/sun, then I guess the distance to Proxima Centauri will be the same...
Hi Karl ... sorry, didn't clarify that .. the distance is also reduced proportionately.
Karl ... I amended the problem statement ... thanks.
Using Sun dia as 865 000 miles as the reference:
Dia Earth = 1"
Dia Mars = 0.52"
Orbit Earth = 970'
Orbit Mars = 1480'
Orbit Moon = 2.5' = 30"
Dia Moon = 0.27"
Proxima Centauri = 49,000 miles
Milky way (100,000 light years) = 11600 miles
Scaled size of universe:
160 000 000 000 000 000 miles
(160 quadrillion miles)
27 light years, so quite big even scaled.
Orbit Mercury = 0.07 miles
Orbit Venus = 0.13 miles
Orbit Earth = 0.18 miles
Orbit Mars = 0.28 miles
Oribit Jupiter = 1 mile
Orbit Saturn = 1.47 miles
Orbit Uranus = 3.54 miles
Orbit Neptune = 5.5 miles
Orbit (poor old) Pluto = 7 miles (approx average)
I'm finally bored with that.
Speed of light = 0.59 meters/sec
= 23.3 inches/sec
Definitely done now.
Chris, you're probably the only one who will solve this one, so I am going to go ahead and present the solution:
a. Earth's diameter - approx. 1"
b. Mar's ddiameter - slightly more than 1/2"
c. Distance from Earth to Sun - 1046'
d. Distance from Earth to Moon - approx. 32"
e. From sun to Proxima Centauri - approx. 53,872 miles.
I used 865000 miles for the Sun as that's what the first three or four websites said. After correcting for that, I get your number as near as makes no difference.
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