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Maine Completes Largest To-Scale Solar System Model

Posted by timothy on from the can't-get-theayah-from-heayah dept.

Neophytus writes "The University of Maine has now almost completed its solar system model, to be unveiled officially on the June 14th at Westfield. The final planet, Uranus, will be set in place on the 13th. At forty miles from Pluto to The Sun and built to a scale of 1:93,000,000, it will be the largest three-dimensional scale model of the Solar System in North America."

5 of 211 comments (clear)

  1. three-dimensional? by Trepidity · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Given that the solar system isn't all in the same plane, it'd be quite a trick to make a three-dimensional model stay on the Earth's surface (even ignoring curvature). Or are they not tracing out orbits, but instead picking a point on the orbits where the planets happen to be collinear?

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    10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
    1. Re:three-dimensional? by Beryllium+Sphere(tm) · · Score: 4, Insightful

      collinear or coplanar?

      The real Solar System is close to coplanar. At this scale, Pluto might be the only one where you'd notice the difference.

      It looks like they're laying everything out in a single line rather than faithfully reflecting current orbital positions. Which makes sense -- would you like to have the job of moving Mercury? An illusion of collinearity is a good compromise compared to trying to build a 40-mile wide orrery.

  2. Re:Why? by Rick.C · · Score: 1, Insightful
    Why? Sure, I could make a 40 mile scale model of the solar system, but I have to ask, why?

    Actually, you can't. At least you couldn't up until now.

    You have access to the materials, you have the know-how and you could likely find the space. What's holding you back? You don't have the motivation. Without the desire to do it, you can't.

    Not "can but don't want to." "Can't."

    It's a safe bet that my post is not going to make you say, "Well I'll show him!" so even after reading this, you still can't.

    No offense intended. I can't do it either. Just pointing out that drive or ambition is a necessary part of the equation for actually doing things.

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    You were 80% angel, 10% demon. The rest was hard to explain. - Over The Rhine
    "Math in a song is good."-Linford
  3. Re:Why? by 2nd+Post! · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Education
    Edification
    Realization
    Wonder

    Until you heard about this, did you have any real sense of the size and scale of our solar system?

    How about the rest of Slashdot?

    How about for those building this thing?

    How about for those who visit this thing?

    Imagine how tedious it is to walk from the earth to Mars, and then scale that to interplanetary scales, not even taking into account periphelion and aphelion, and gravity slingshots and lagrange tubes.

    I mean, are you going to similarly argue that museums that only display known things is worthless?

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    GPL Deconstructed
  4. Re:And if you jog from the sun to the earth.. by The+Creator · · Score: 2, Insightful
    If you run it in 8 minutes, then you would be exceeding the (scale) speed of light.


    Not if the 8 minutes was measured with the watch you were carrying :)

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    FRA: STFU GTFO