Is it possible to represent the solar system to scale on a sheet of paper?

Is it possible to represent the solar system to scale on a sheet of paper?

By Benedetto Nicolai | A.Science | 20 Nov 2020


Is it possible to represent the solar system to scale on a sheet of paper? Absolutely not
The distances and dimensions of the various celestial bodies are truly enormous and a very long amount of paper would be needed. If the Sun were the size of a tennis ball, the Earth would have to be the size of a pinhead. If we represent Mercury with the dimensions of one millimeter, the Sun should have a dimension of about 30 centimeters, and a distance of 11 meters! Neptune, the planet farthest from our parent star, would be 900 meters away. It would therefore take at least one km of paper child to represent the solar system to scale, maintaining the right relationships between sizes and dimensions.

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