An Inflated Impression of Mars
Students use scaling from real-world data to obtain an idea of the immense size of Mars in relation to the Earth and the Moon, as well as the distances between them. Students calculate dimensions of the scaled versions of the planets, and then use balloons to represent their relative sizes and locations.
Students model the distance between Earth and MarsCopyright Image by Daniel Roberts from Pixabay
https://pixabay.com/photos/space-universe-solar-system-4641363/
Accessed August 5, 2020
Scaling is frequently used by engineers to resize large (or small) objects, such as factories, dams, or airplanes (or microscopic surgery tools), into manageable sizes for purposes of design and testing. By scaling down (or up) an object, engineers can more easily experiment with how the parts interact and how the finished product will function and look. Engineers also make scaled prototypes to test the design of the product.
After this activity, students should:
- Describe how engineers and scientists use scaling and models to investigate problems.
- Use data and apply scales to grasp the sizes of the Earth, Mars and the Moon.
- Compute an appropriate scaling ratio from real-world data.
- Use a model of Earth, Mars and the Moon to explain why scaling is useful when we want to know about objects that are too big or too small to see.