Slashdot Mirror
Worlds Largest Scale Model Solar System?
Richard_at_work writes "As the BBC is reporting, the UK is to attempt to create the worlds largest scale model of the solar system ever attempted. At a scale of 1:15million, this brings the distance between the Sun (positioned in Cheshire at the Jodrell Bank Telescope site) and the Earth to 15km or 10 miles, although you will need to travel the entire length of the UK to visit all of the planets. Interesting to note is the distinct lack of a 10th planet :) As well as the 9 planets and the sun, also shown on the model will be Halleys Comet and several asteroids. Would have been great if they had included probes such as Voyager 1." Maybe this claimant for world's largest solar system model will have to expand to keep up.
Of course, on the scale of this model, the closest star (other than the Sun) to us, Proxima Centurai, would be located four times the distance to the Moon.
What really fumes me about this project is that it will have the planets as artistic inspirations. I want to see how big the damn red storm on Jupiter is, of course, I guess they wouldn't be that acurate. But hell, at least make it as acurate, not an art exhibit.
-- johntracy.com, because everybody else is wrong.
you could actually stand at one planet and use high powered binoculars to see the next closet planet
These large scale models are built especially to educate people like you who think they can spot a tennis-ball sized object with binoculars from several miles away.
You can't take the sky from me...
I don't really understand what the point of this is, aside from bragging rights. Ideally, the whole point of having scale models is to convey to the viewer the dimensions of space involved. If you have an Earth globe and a Sun globe attached to a pair of strings in a dimly-lit room, you immediately know that perhaps our insignificant little planet isn't quite as large as we had believed.
But what happens when you visit the location of, say, the Jupiter location somewhere northeast of Paris? Its a completely isolated experience; you have nothing to compare it to. You know, intellectually, that Saturn is a couple hundred miles south, but that does absolutely nothing for you appreciation of the grandeur and sheer distance involved. The human mind can't comprehend on a conscious level the breadth of France unless they drive across it (and even then its more vestigial than anything).
~Tirinal
There's an old legend about a Mapmaker, who was the finest mapmaker in his entire country. His maps were the most accurate, detailed, and well-documented maps available in the entire country; possibly the entire world.
One day, the King came to the Mapmaker, and requested a new map of the country, that would be more accurate than any map that had ever been made. And so, the Mapmaker made a map of the entire country that included every house, every road, and every lake. The map was so big, he had to store it in a barn.
The King was so delighted that he commissioned another map of the country, which was to be even more accurate. And so, the Mapmaker made a new map which was even more accurate, and included ever room and piece of furniture in the country, every foot path, and every well. The map was so big, he had to had to store the map in the fields behind the castle, and it had to be moved periodically so that the grass wouldn't die underneath.
The King was so thrilled with the new map, that he commissioned yet another map from the Mapmaker. It was to be the greatest map ever made. And so, the Mapmaker made another map, the best map ever made. The Mapmaker included every nail, every rock, every blade of grass, and every puddle in the entire country. When he was finished, he presented the map to the King, and there was a very big ceremony, for they had to unroll the map so the King could look at it. You see, the map was so detailed, that it was as big as the entire country! And when they unrolled the map, it blocked out the sun and stars in all the land.
Moral of the story: A map with a scale of 1:1 isn't of much use. Maps are usefull to the extent that they can compress information, are transportable, and are abstractions of reality.
Yes... i agree. ...etc..
but keeping the planets hundreds of miles apart kindoff defeats the purpose... then children and newbies(to space) cant really imagine the whole setup at one time. besides a static model leaves out a lot of details like revolution, rotation eclipses
perhaps the creation of a cybernetic solar system could help... wear you VR goggles and get ready to explore the planets... maybe inside roadside information kiosks... where you can drive from planet to planet in your own turbo charged space car.
also interaction makes things more interesting than reading info from concrete plate... besides who knows what the kids nowadays like...
[all generalizations are untrue except this one]
This kind of thing could be used to create more resilient ribbon cables than we have now. If these things can tolerate repeated 180 degree bends and being pinch off at weird angles frequently over a long period of time, laptop designers may have finally met their new best friend! qfa
Did anybody notice that if the 1:15 million scale quoted in the Slashdot article is correct that 10 scale miles is 150 million miles? The average distance from the Earth to the Sun is roughly 93 million miles, so 150 million is a about 50% too high. Which is wrong, the scale provided or the scale distance quoted?
The whole point of these solar system models is to give a sense of the vast space between the planets. If you make it too big, it becomes more and more difficult to get this sense. People can't relate to 100's or 1000's of miles very well.