It's hard to get one's head wrapped
around how vast the solar system is.
So we did the math.
We took the huge distances and divided by 10,000,000,
i.e. we moved the decimal point
7 places to the left
and did some rounding.
Now we had numbers we could work with.
We made some planets, went outside,
got out some cones,
and started to unwrap a roll of toilet paper.
Each square of the toilet paper represented 10,000,000 miles!
The first four "inner planets" were relatively close to the sun.
We then estimated how far out Neptune would be.
We kept on counting.
We were on a roll!
We added the asteroid belt located between Mars and Jupiter.
The rocks also helped keep our t.p. from blowing away.
We kept going and going and going...
178, 179, 180...
In actuality, 1,780,000,000 miles, 1,790,000,000 miles, 1,800,000,000 miles!
When we got to Neptune,
we decided to keep on going to Pluto.
Thank you, Siri, for helping us out.
She made us really have to "do the math".
We now have our heads more wrapped
around how vast the solar system is.
We went inside and drew
the solar system more true to scale.
And that's a wrap. (Or should we say, unwrap?)
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