1. Distances of Planets in Miles (from Sun)
Mercury 36 million miles,
Venus 67.2 million miles
Earth 93 million miles
Mars million miles
Jupiter million miles
Saturn million miles
Uranus 1,784.0 million miles
Neptune 2,794.4 million miles
Pluto 3,674.5 million miles

2. A unit of measurement that we use to make a more manageable number.
Reference Units
A unit of measurement that we use to make a more manageable number.

3. Is units of time a good reference unit in place of miles?

4. What did we use for reference units for our diagrams?

5. Would these work to help us understand planetary distances?

6. Astronomical Unit (AU)
An AU is the distance from Earth to the Sun, about 150 million kilometers or 93 million miles

7. Planet Distance from Sun in AU
Mercury 0.39
Venus 0.72
Earth 1.0
Mars 1.5
Jupiter 5.2
Saturn 9.5
Uranus 19.2
Neptune 30.1
Pluto 39.5

8. What is a light year? A REFERENCE UNIT! 5.88 trillion miles
The distance light travels in one year.
So how old is the light from the sun when it reaches us?

9. 93 million miles/ 5. 88 trillion miles =(93 million miles) / (5
93 million miles/ 5.88 trillion miles =(93 million miles) / (5.88 trillion miles) = × 10-5
That’s light years! If it was you, it would be a newborn baby, but think of everything it does for us!

10. Determining scale
When we map a map, we need to create a scale that represents the distances.
If our paper is only nine inches, and we are drawing a map of an area 80 miles wide, we need to “shrink” the size to make it fit.
How do we make it shrink?

12. We need to divide! We divide 80 miles by 9 inches?
Hmmmm, will that give us enough room?
Mark the two furthest points and measure between those two points.
THEN we divide 80 miles/ 8 inches
= 10 miles/inch! Remember your units!