Distances in Solar System and Universe

This is a two for one activity set. Both of them involve taking distances in space and scaling them down to sizes observable on Earth. The first activity calculates sizes of the planets based on shrinking the Earth down to a 1cm diameter and then showing the spacing of the planets on a football field. The students will also calculate the mass distribution in the solar system between the planets and the sun. The second activity takes distances in the universe and scales them down to the Earth. I often tell the students to visualize being an ant and trying to crawl to these places on earth in order to get a better understanding of the vast distances in the universe. Examples include the distance to the edge of the milky way and the Andromeda galaxy. Students use scientific notation for calculations and mapping skills to plot the distances on various maps.