(Nearly) Scale Model of the Solar System on the LAX Field

PLEASE NOTE: There is one significant (and purposeful) error in the scaling of this model. Please watch all the way to the end of the video (@ the 7:45 mark), read the video description below, and/or the various responses to comments on this video! Enjoy!
I teach Astrophysics at Palo Alto High School (Palo Alto, California) and this video was made for my students as an introduction to the structure and scale of the Universe. This video attempts to illustrate what a full scale model of the Solar System might look like. The size of the Sun and the planets shown relative to each other are quite accurate. And the relative spacing of the distances shown are quite accurate. BUT, the scale used for the sizes and the scale used for the distances are NOT the same. What would they have to be if it were a TRULY scale model of the Solar System (go to the 7:45 mark in the video)?
For a nice "grande finale" to this video, I recommend this video from National Geographic. I always show it to my students after walking them through our "not quite" scale model on the field to show them what a FULL SCALE model of the Solar System would have to look like:
• Video
You might also enjoy my other video describing what a scale model of the ENTIRE observable Universe would look like:
• Scale Model of the Uni...

[@andrewp1308]

There is a solar system trail in Melbourne Australia measured out at a 1:1000000000 scale with all planets sized to scale. It's a 5.9km walk from the sun all the way out to Pluto and Earth is only 150m. It's mind boggling just how vast our own solar system is yet alone the universe.

[@streamofconsciousness5826]

I saw that yesterday as well, I was just wondering how big or small it would have to be to virtually travel at the speed of light at a Earth velocity from one end to the other. Internet "It takes sunlight 5.5 hours to travel from the Sun to Pluto". I can't get over that, I thought a few minutes.... Walking that path using the Planets as markers you are going a lot faster than the speed of light. If you were to build one where you drove at 100km/ph = the Speed of Light it would have to be 5.5km. (I have thought about this a couple of times. seems right now)

[@fromnorway643]

@@streamofconsciousness5826 The speed of light at that scale is 30 cm per second, so 5.5 hours to Pluto at its average distance from the Sun. Did you notice that the _nearest star,_ Proxima Centauri, was placed next to the Sun in that model? That was done because its distance (4.25 light-years) in that model is very close to the circumference of the *_real_* Earth or about 40,000 km.

[@chuckinhouston9952]

Bigger than Texas, fur shure, good buddy.🇨🇱

[@HighlanderNorth1]

​@@streamofconsciousness5826 Yes, and your experience there is proof that we _CAN_ walk at the speed of light! 😊

[@pauladouglass9456]

@@HighlanderNorth1lol

[@Glasstable2011]

What really blows my mind is how it doesn’t matter how small you make the scale, pretty quickly your distances between planets, stars and galaxies become literally astronomical

[@luffyluck]

What makes thing crazier for me is that the earth is still affected by the gravitational pull from the sun regardless of how distant it is. And the sun (and everything in the solar system) is still affected by the gravitational pull from the black hole at the center of the milky way. Just mind blowing how heavy/dense these are.

[@lordfluxington]

There's another good video conveying the same idea of vast distance. The guy gets a golf ball as a scale model of our sun and says, "at this scale, let's go and see where the closest star to the sun is"... he literally drives 1200km (745miles) to place the Proxima Centauri golf ball.

[@dfp_01]

​@@lordfluxingtonFermi-paradox-chuds quaking in their moon boots

[@jayhop]

​@@lordfluxingtonjust watched, that was a good video thanks for the rec 🙏

[@steffanfockenssf]

Worthless 🎉

[@psyience3213]

This model is honestly one of the best and absolute mind blowing demonstrations. I never realized how far the distances are between the gas giants.

[@komplex69]

If you think that’s mind blowing, try factoring in the nearest star. I believe on this scale, if the sun (orange balloon) was in London uk, you would have to travel to south of spain to put the other balloon there (Proxima Centuri)

[@psyience3213]

@@komplex69 I just watched that one last night! i commented how utterly mind blowing it is too. and it was a golf ball lol

[@komplex69]

@@psyience3213 ha yea, that’s the one 😁

[@ehombane]

@@komplex69 My mind was not blown at all by the scale. I already had a pretty good idea of the scale of the solar system. And when he set the Earth to 1 inch, and Sun at that distance, I noticed that is not anymore at the scale. I admit I was late to notice it, because I noticed it only he got back to Earth. I should have seen it when he placed Mercury. But I am aware that I am slow. Also, I know that light needs 8 minutes to reach the Earth, but still I did not realized that he is moving faster than light until he mentioned it. But you saying that at that scale, you could place the closest star on Earth, got me surprised too. If I would have had to guess, I would have said that should be maybe as far as Moon or further. But this is because It is just a wild guess, I have no idea about the actual distances. Few minutes later. I checked figures and you were partially right, but not on spot. Also I was right, but further from truth. The big difference was given by the fact that I considered the first scale and you the second. So, Earth is just a little more than half a billion inches in diameter. He made it about an inch, so scale is 1 to half billion. I divided that 40 trillion or whatever mean 4 followed by 13 zeroes divided by 500 million, and I got 80 000 km. So this a lot quite a lot closer than the Moon as I would have guessed. However, using the other scale, 100 times smaller, gives 800 km. Much closer than your statement. Is North, not South of Spain. Still you were wrong by a factor of two, and me by a factor of 4. Anyway, not so bad, for a wild guess, :)

[@electron1324]

​@@psyience3213it's not even the right scale the distance between earth and Mars would be about 18,000 earth of that size. Which would be about 36 meters if earth is 2cms.

[@captainunload]

What I find fascinating is how powerful gravity is. The Sun is so far away, yet Pluto can't break free of its orbit around it.

[@ctsquad501st3]

In reality, gravity is a weak force compared to magnetism, but the masses involved are just so enormous that it doesn't matter

[@KryptonKr]

@@ctsquad501st3in reality also, gravity is still a mystery. We don’t fully understand the origin of it.

[@trr7fd]

@@KryptonKr I created it

[@KryptonKr]

@@trr7fd Wow, how?

[@trr7fd]

@@KryptonKr it was pretty easy actually

[@dlkline27]

I'm 84 years old and never have seen the solar system scaled like this. I'm blown away by sun's size and the distances. I had no idea there was so much space between the outer planets. Thank you!

[@doziergames]

this is a wrong scale as well, it's much greater and more haunting

[@boriskhromchenko2473]

If the distance from Earth to the Sun is 10 feet, then the distance to the nearest planet (Proxima Centauri) is approximately 4,710,000,000 miles. If the size of the Sun is equal to the size of a golf ball, then the distance to the nearest planet would be approximately 474,597,240,523 miles. Quite far, isn't it?

[@zacklande5159]

@@boriskhromchenko2473 completely under rated comment. Thank you!

[@SpahGaming]

@@boriskhromchenko2473 first of all, its the nearest star, not planet, 2nd of all, if the distance to the sun was 10ft, (1AU) then the scale would be 1:100,000,000,000, making the ~4 light year distance between us and proxima centauri become under 10 miles, not 4.7 billion. and if the sun was the size of a golf ball, (4.3 cm) that would make that scale 1:34,750,000,000, or make the distance between earth and proxima centauri 170 miles. if my maths is correct. large numbers, but not incomprehensable.

[@-108-]

Don't be blown away byt his. It's all completely wrong. The Earth should be more than a football field away from the Sun to make that scale model even close to proper.

[@akhenaeravaaldryn]

Some friends and i actually did this in school for a project, but with both size and distance at the same scale. We started with a sun about the same size as yours, and placing the planets we had to drive all over town. Pluto was actually in another town entirely. We wrote down the addresses and took pictures of each in case people wanted to check them out. Was very mind blowing to realize the distances involved though.

[@nickluther4423]

I hope you got an A

[@Okami400]

Theres a place that has statues of the planets placed across the town that actully depicts the distance of them in scale.

[@akhenaeravaaldryn]

@@nickluther4423 Absolutely! They actually did an article in the local paper about it too. I live in a very rural area, and this is a pretty small town. And this was many years ago. But yeah, everyone loved it, especially the teachers.

[@ba2724]

@@akhenaeravaaldrynFor sure they enjoyed Uranus and spent some time probing it. The things they do in the name of education!

[@plty3931]

@@ba2724oh come on 🎉

[@tonyfranklin4079]

I was really skeptical until you explained the different scales you used to measure distance and size at 7:44. Well done, sir.

[@erintyres3609]

Early in the video, I felt skeptical and got out my calculator. The distance from the center of the sun to the center of the Earth is 107.5 times the sun's diameter. Yes, he is using a different scale as explained.

[@Splandrocity]

@@erintyres3609 Wish the video was not titled "(nearly) scale solar system" then lol. It's not that hard to find a field.

[@andikardian9014]

Yes, same with me. The distance from mercury to sun is look too close with that size. And from Venus to earth is just like from moon to earth. But fortunately I watched it until the end before make any comment.

[@jacksongraydon2503]

I knew this was wayyyy too cramped to be realistic, I'm glad he corrected at the end

[@aneternall]

I didn't watch to the end. The Sun looks way too big in the video from the perspective of Earth. I spent 15 minutes trying to figure out if I was going crazy.

[@dougs7367]

It's amazing that the sun has enough gravity to keep all the planets in orbit around it especially considering how far away they are from it.

[@sixstanger00]

Not really. If you think of spacetime as a fabric, then the Sun is by far the heaviest object on that fabric, and so it forms a "sinkhole" or "cone." For simplicity's sake, let's pretend the Sun is the only star in the universe. In this hypothetical universe, the "bend" in spacetime caused by the Sun would stretch out to infinity, but the further you got away from the Sun, the more gentle the angle of the cone wall becomes. Gentler angle = weaker gravitational pull. Nevertheless, any object _lighter_ than it's local gravity -- even at a distance of a million light years -- would eventually be pulled to the Sun (the object slowly "rolls down the slope" towards the cone's center -- the Sun) Now imagine you deposit a second star of equal size into this hypothetical universe, but waaaayyy out where the angle is infinitesimally gentle. In this case, the new star's own gravitational pull is much stronger than that of the Sun's pull at that distance, so instead of "rolling down the slope" to the Sun, it will form it's own sinkhole. However, now the gravitational reach of the Sun has been halved, because at a certain point between the two stars (halfway) you "go over the crest" where the two cone walls intersect. In other words, you "escaped" the Sun's pull but are now subject to the pull of the new star. That's why the Sun "has enough gravity to keep all the planets in orbit" --- because if a theoretical rogue planet were to pass within say, one light year beyond the Ort Cloud, it would eventually be pulled into our Solar System because it's within the Sun's "cone." Our nearest neighbor is Proxima Centauri - about four light years away - so any planetoid, rock, etc passing between us but further than 2 light years away would be pulled THERE. It would be within Proxima Centauri's "cone," and not ours.

[@sissykkk]

Doug s my name is Doug s too is your last name Smith to?

[@nicolasnicolas3889]

It's make believe, it's nothing like this in reality, the made it up to make us feel irrelevant......gravity has never been proven, they just blag our heads...

[@Kokopilau77]

It’s especially amazing when there are stars large enough to hit the orbit of Jupiter.

[@cliftonwk]

​@@sixstanger00this is a great explanation if this is how the universe works. I never looked at is this way, as gravity explained in videos never has explained it in this way. Their cgi wireframe models of the fabric have always led me to believe the fabric as flat, with dips (sinkholes) where the mass is found. But after a distance, that fabric becomes flat again once outside of the gravitational field from the massive object. Your explanation describes the entirety of spacetime fabric affected by objects, and only changing due to other massive objects. Is this correct? There is no point in the universe where the fabric of spacetime is neutral, and completely flat unaffected by the mass of objects due to great distance? And this holds true, no matter how minute, even if the universe were empty except for one massive object, thus affecting the entirely of the fabric, atleast in some degree? If this is true, that's very interesting and raises many more questions.

[@HamiltonProvonsha]

I love that this just took me on a journey through the size and scale of the solar system just to tell me that "size doesn't matter". A true hero.

[@Jay-cn3js]

Size does matter it's true, Who wins the fight 9 times out of 10, a 600 lb Cat, or a 400 lb Cat? Small Stars don't S Nova, Black 🕳️, Neutron ⭐ etc... A chicks gotta pick between twins, ones hung like sperm whale. The others got a 3 inch AA battery for a pecker. Which twin is she going to date? Buddy's on to something, size does matter

[@aerialarboreal9005]

Tell that to my ex-wife!! D'oh!! (sorry, couldn't resist lol) 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@brianarbenz1329]

Well done. Thanks for this. Brings our physical insignificance into perspective. Think how unconsciously and without empathy we crush something smaller than a microbe by walking by a blade of grass or brushing by a leaf. That’s how it theoretically could end for us. Not by being conquered, but being unnoticed.

[@greenshifu]

When you show it on a scale like this I find size in space hard to comprehend. Well done, good job.

[@James-eg3nf]

The Smithsonian in Washington DC has a true scale model of the solar system spread out over the entire Mall. You have literally have to walk miles to see the entire thing. That’s the first time I truly understood the scale and it blew my mind at the time.

[@itoibo4208]

and that is with a sun the size of a grapefruit. sadly, the system in this video does not convey a true sense of scale.

[@itoibo4208]

although he corrects it at the end, and in the description, i think most viewers are going to think his model is to actual scale, which is a bummer.

[@willoughbykrenzteinburg]

At the Smithsonian scale, the nearest star would be about 2,000 miles away....or almost to Los Angeles from D.C.

[@wally7856]

Whatever that model made you think how big the solar system is - double it. All the planets orbit at different rates so at any given time half of them are on the other side of the sun in the other direction. Only once in 400 billion years do they ever all line up in a row so most likely it has never happened yet.

[@itoibo4208]

@@wally7856good point. we are just looking at the radius there.

[@DinoMan_6]

Anyone could understand this concept thanks to this video. Well spoken and simple explanation. You’d make a great teacher.

[@LiquidTurbo]

You should read his video description

[@BaroqueBlues]

Earth is Flat!

[@kam9908]

shut up

[@fukdimudi]

@@BaroqueBlues it is... compared to your mother.

[@BaroqueBlues]

@@fukdimudi no, it's compared to your mind

[@Karthos1000]

Great work. I love seeing things like this. We've got a scale model of the solar system in the middle of one of our parks here in town, and Neptune and Pluto (when it was constructed, Pluto was still a planet) are so far away that they are actually on sidewalks, one near the edge of the city, and one downtown, both miles away from the park. Also: 1 cm/sec is a hell of a fast snail.

[@ycong4689]

Scale (dia vs distance) is not right imho

[@AverageJoeDividends]

Watch the whole video.

[@mysterycatarrhman]

Not only was this an eloquent and informative talk on the move but you did it in one take. Impressive stuff!

[@mikes.438]

Really strong work here. Now the next step is to understand where the nearest star is. If you use your distance model (and scale the size of the objects down) you will have a sun about the size of a quarter and, as you suggested, an earth the size of a grain of salt. Light would take 8 minutes to go from sun to earth and hours to get to the outer planets. The nearest star is FOUR LIGHTYEARS away. Let's say that star, named proxima centauri is also about the size of a quarter. To fit your distance model you would need to place that quarter 200 miles away! So our sun, the earth, the outer planets then nothing for 200 empty miles except the occasional comet, and random floating atoms, etc. Truly staggering. I hasten to add, please don't actually try to shrink down the solar system this way. If the earth were shrunk to about 3/8 inch it would become a black hole..... :)

[@ellidominusser1138]

Oh man I wanted to shrink the earth you destroyed my plans!

[@hvathlete2]

Honey I shrunk the earth! 😂

[@whalegoblin]

If it isn't our size that makes us significant in the vastness of the celestial bodies of the solar system, I believe our ability to comprehend and recognize these distances is what makes us significant. We can do as much as understand that these distances do exist, and are finite.

[@julianrowe8352]

Very good, and I'm glad you clarified the scale issue, as I was looking at the sun thinking "nah, that's way too big!". Great video

[@joshbbloom]

Please watch all the way through the last two minutes of the video. Many have commented that the scale is off. You’re right! I address this explicitly at the end so hang in there for the big reveal! That said, thank you for the nearly 200k views! How gratifying so many people are interested in something so much greater than ourselves! :)

[@George-Francis]

You posted an educational style video that misleads people by a factor of 100x for the first 8 minutes, then say "gotcha" 8 minutes in where the majority of people have already stopped watching. I don't ethically agree with your choice there. There's enough science misunderstanding in the world. Luckily I watched Bill Nye do this same video properly when I was a kid, so I didn't get fooled.

[@calixmyller4460]

@@George-Francis o

[@glasshalffull2930]

⁠@@George-Francis I stopped watching at 8 seconds. This is after he stated, “…’full scale’ model of the solar system.” Either there’s a new definition of “full scale” or I’ve been mistaken for my whole life.

[@robjohnston366]

@@George-Francis I don't think his intent was to mislead. He wanted to manifest an approximate scale model of the planets' sizes relative to each other and in relation to the sun. In factoring the distances between the sun and its revolving planets, he couldn't have used this soccer field, because it wasn't remotely large enough to factor in these distances, but yet he wanted to give the viewers of his video something to grasp onto in actually seeing the planets themselves, because Pluto, the Earth, Mercury, and a couple others, wouldn't have detectable to our very human eyes. Btw, Josh, you stated at ~ 6:00 that Uranus was 4x the diameter of the sun, which should have been earth. I had to ask Siri to confirm this. Great video!

[@TangoNevada]

@@George-Francis You're right. And since this deception I have no idea what to do with my life anymore. I really thought the Earth was a little bigger. Now what do I do?

[@Zstray17]

I’m here to support Pluto.

[@benreinstepp7979]

✊

[@Vasnikazde]

✊🏻

[@literallynoone5125]

Okay Jerry

[@standcontractdelta8120]

I stand with Jupiter

[@Crystalizedcrystal]

✊️

[@STEAMerBear]

I knew that looked familiar! I’m a Paly graduate (class of 83). I am also a teacher. I have been mainly teaching (mostly math & science) at tiny schools since graduating from UCSC in 88. This year I showed my kids a to-scale video done in the Mojave desert. This one is a lot easier to grasp initially and a good segue into the other and then Charles and Ray Eames’ Powers of Ten. Thanks for making this video (and treating this old Viking to some nostalgia)!

[@SuzukiRacer055]

The universe is so unimaginably and mind bogglingly large. Most people wont even undstand how ridiculously big space and time is. Im guessing on this scale the closest star would probably be thousands of miles away.

[@TheVideoRaf]

Love how simplified and easy to understand is your explanation! Thank you for sharing!🙂

[@andreworr4307]

It's incredible the distances involved ? We can see it but the human brain has not evolved to truly understand the cosmic scale ? This is one solar system in one average galaxy in a universe of over a trillion galaxies( and that's just the observable universe which for all we know is a fraction of the true size ?? It's so far beyond comprehension it would need a planet sized brain to even come close to an understanding

[@BaroqueBlues]

Earth is Flat.............

[@deletdis6173]

Play at 1.75 speed you wont regret it

[@mikesmicroshop4385]

I just about always play everything at at least 1.5 speed :)

[@peta-butter2744]

Lmao

[@peta-butter2744]

Yeah he talks to slow lol

[@mikesmicroshop4385]

@@peta-butter2744 :) I mean everything these days. It is to the point that I can't watch any regular broadcast or cable stuff as it is so slow! Guess I have created a monster for myself by getting used to the faster speed on everything I watch. LOL

[@thefuturist8864]

I can’t cope with his voice at that speed. He sounds like Ben Shapiro.

[@MrG77]

When you talk about space in any form of distance and size ,it is absolutely mindboggling . Especially when space is expanding at an incredible rate. Scary really.🙏

[@davidboyle1902]

I agree that this is the best scaled representation of the solar system I’ve ever seen. And seeing it, I’m struck how amazing it is that science - the stuff scientists do as opposed to politicians - has allowed us to send instruments to all the planets and beyond within my lifetime. Navigating such distances is beyond my comprehension. Amazing stuff. Great demo. Thx.

[@GERntleMAN]

That makes the sheer scale much more relatable than simulations. It is absolutely insane how large space is. And how slow light is and especially how far distances can be

[@blackthought6133]

For the sun to be so far away, it's amazing that it still...has gravitational pull on the far away planets....

[@fridiefamily9989]

I mean... it does encompass 99.9% of the total mass of our solar system.

[@blackthought6133]

@@fridiefamily9989 are u a scientist 👀

[@m73m95]

It really makes Einstein's curved space/time theory easier to imagine though. It's difficult to picture gravity being able to hold all of the planets in orbit... But if the sun made a curved hole, then the planets, with enough speed, would revolve around the hole but never fall into the middle

[@EventHorizonPrdctns]

One of the many things this video opened my eyes to was that exactly - gravity is such a more phenomenal, mysterious force than I ever grasped before!

[@blackthought6133]

@@EventHorizonPrdctns its really amazing and in my opinion still misunderstood in my opinion

[@CDaisy-tp7hw]

I'm glad I watched the entire video. When it first started, and the size/distance relationship had not been explained, I was thinking someone was completely full of doo-doo. It turned out to be quite interesting and quite informative. Thank you.

[@limbodog]

Man, the two different scales you use really threw me off for most of the video. I just kept thinking "that can't possibly be right!"

[@Chadman03elantra]

Ah yes, I was starting to have my doubts early in the video when such a massive sun appeared so close to the inner planets. When you started explaining the scale difference then it started making sense. At the laid out scale I would think the sun would look massive from the earth.

[@AstroTibs]

This means that it's not a "scale model of the solar system" as the title states.

[@utoobia]

@@AstroTibsYep. It’s useless.

[@rhyswong8976]

I've seen this scale model so many times... and every time it is done (I've seen the one from Nat Geo where they did it in the desert and they have to drive miles to a mountain top) and even yours... always always boggles the mind. Thank you showing.

[@husseltoo]

Another mind boggling tidbit. As they are, you can fit all the planets from the solar system in a line, in the space between the earth and the moon. Hence the scale being "wrong" for the size of the planets.

[@tomthompson2309]

Never seen it so simple yet impacting,great video thanks ❤

[@PetrisonRocha]

This was awesome. The end puts on perspective how very far away the sun is from us, yet it's so energetic it still dominates our life as it does. Kinda mind blowing when seen at this scale, even when you already know the numbers.

[@josephmayer2565]

If the pumpkin is about 900,000 mile dia, and 90,000,000 miles from earth, shouldn't the earth be 100 pumpkins away? Looks too close.

[@joshbbloom]

You are correct. The scale shown is off by approx. a factor of 100x. The last 2 minutes of the video address this.

[@dorisuwadileke7156]

weellll it is 103 suns[pumpkins] away

[@pleasedontcallmestupiderwh559]

109 pumpkins

[@Cappurniggas]

I was in the middle of leaving the same comment when the video got to the part where he explains that he moved the decimal point 2 places to make everything fit on the field. Personally, I think that monkeying with the scale like that defeats the purpose. He could've just moved the decimal point over one more time and fit the whole thing on a piece of paper like a textbook, but everybody's got to stay busy, right.

[@MikeJones-rk1un]

Remember planets are usually on opposite sides of the sun making the distances much greater.

[@ivanmondragon2735]

the realization that light travels that slowly at this scale was incredible and something i had never realized but the scale explanation at the end was astonishing. thank you for taking the time to make this

[@kyle18934]

there was a scify book series I listened to, it wasnt a serious series, but the autho did take the slowness of light speed into consideration. for ships fighting, they would be about five or ten light seconds appart, so ships could drift left, and the ship firing would have no idea if they moved. it made kinetic wraponry less useful, since it was slower than light speed as well

[@alien3200]

It means that you are not educated enough

[@ivanmondragon2735]

@@alien3200what’s it like to have no friends?

[@alien3200]

@@ivanmondragon2735 i have friends 😂

[@butchrdeblaviknu5284]

What makes it weirder is although light is slow compared to the distances, from light's POV crossing those distances is instantaneous.

[@LemmyAuditYou]

Thanks Josh, I appreciate this video and having studied Physics and Astronomy and I truly understand it as well. You just earned my Subcription.

[@jacksoncourson5831]

The fact that every planet can fit in between the Earth and the Moon just shows how spacious space is

[@JasonWardStudios]

The McLaughlin Planetarium (Toronto, Canada) featured a show back in the late 1980's that did a true scale model, including correct distances. The Earth was the size of a pea, and the sun was a large beachball. They placed the beachball at one end of a football field and Pluto, a grain of sand at the other, and fit the other planets along the way. Then they ended by stating that the nearest star(s), Alpha Centauri, would be 2 beachballs placed on the opposite side of the Earth. It was a great little presentation, and I with I had a record of it!

[@leetori1]

I was told: if it’s 6inches from the sun to Pluto, the next sun is 1km away

[@truthboomertruthbomber5125]

You need to decide which measuring system you are going to use.

[@leetori1]

I’m English so it’s both

[@LongTailCat3]

@@leetori1there isnt another sun

[@leetori1]

*star

[@snyderkr0822]

Scale models of things really help us understand more about what we know. There's a similar kind of model on the Mall by the Smithsonian that is quite fun to walk along to get a grasp of just how big our solar system is. What is also interesting to think about is even at the reduced distance scale, how little percent of the sun's energy hits the Earth and keeps it as warm as it does and makes life possible.

[@adakot123]

Thank you. Perspectives are everything.. and you tried to bring out the one that ‘really’ matters through a beautiful scientific and mathematical demonstration 🙏

[@fyerfyter339]

Well done. I’ve completed this exercise on paper at different scales. The distances are truly amazing. A very small portion of this is Earth to Moon and to Sun. Accurate and easy to visualize. Earth at 2 inch dia: Moon at 3/4 inch dia: 5’- 6” from Earth Sun at 20 foot dia: 2,150’ or 4/10 mile from Earth

[@Guitar387]

What you said on about light only travels at approx 1 cm a second was incredible and made me understand and visualise that light isn’t that fast in the scale of the universe. Great video.

[@unforgettablejazzfusion5546]

Light is actually super slow. Only in our perception it's super fast. But the speeds at the edges of our universe where the expansion is taking place, matter is moving much, much faster than light. Super scary.

[@Guitar387]

@@unforgettablejazzfusion5546 mind blowing.

[@BW-pr8qr]

Great job! Every teacher should do this in science class! I taught my kids this when they were young, and it boggled their mind. One thing I'd like to do with a class (if I were a teacher) would be to place a beach ball (~24 inches) at the goal line of a football field to represent the Sun. Then give each student a pea (~1/4 inch) to represent Earth. Ask them each to place the pea on the football field to represent about how far away from the Sun they think the Earth should be.... (They'd have to walk 70 yards to accurately place the pea!)

[@TestEric]

Brought tears to my eyes, beautiful job.

[@dog3y3]

Even after your explanation, even after showing us a decent scale of distance, it's still mind boggling.

[@jbryan8864]

Mind blowing! Such a stark contrast compared to the models we all seen in text books growing up.

[@charlescowan6121]

Thank you, I really enjoyed your presentation! The shear vastness of interstellar space is mind-boggling! The photo that was taken of M87 blackhole pays tribute to this; it's so far away, because it's so large the image came out well. Also I wish to mention the space between the electron cloud and nucleus of an atom is quite amazing! In fact, that would be a great demonstration!

[@alexcordero6672]

Cogito, ergo sum. The fact that I can think, and reason makes me significant. Awesome video, thanks for sharing!

[@jackri7676]

I've grown up on this field! So cool to see this demonstration in a familiar place.

[@philiphoel4290]

I did a paper model of the solar system when I was in high school. I forget the exact scale I used. But when I was making it, I went through reams of paper, most of which were completely blank. I eventually decided to abbreviate most of the distances. Even so, the model went up one side of the hallway, down the other side, and up through the middle one and a half times. It was actually kind of fun to do.

[@No_Fuse8771]

I did that in middle school on one sheet of project board. Yes I got a zero until my sisters high school teacher "who helped me" contacted my teacher and corrected her. I put empty paperclips on the board but spaced the correct distance apart at a factor of 10,000. That was the only way to make it fit. You can't even see the sun at that size. BTW the paperclips, I had bent to make one part stand up like a pin. Maybe it was 100,000, that was 30 years ago. Putting the candle strength each planet received from the sun was the pain and then painting it. Lot of work for that. Took me a week as I recall.

[@user-zf4qv4mu3p]

Great Job! Saw another video a while back where some guys made a scale model out in the salt flats. Even simulated orbits with atv's. Was remarkable.

[@brandonzimmerman4928]

Best thing I've watched in a while. Very well done.

[@ronaldmcke4284]

I thought I had a problem with how close the earth was to the sun. Then I learned how good your video was. Well done ❤

[@GlennSisson]

Nice job Josh. Nice twist for your students when you throw in missing factor of 100. Personally I knew your diameter/distance scales were different right away as I had seen a scale model of the solar system at the Arecibo Observatory (RIP) in Puerto Rico when I visited in 2004. The long hike from the parking lot to the Arecibo visitors center wound up and around a hill. The "Sun" model was in the parking lot (size of a large grapefruit as I recall) and by the time one had completed the long (and hot and humid) hike to the visitors center one was at "Saturn" (if memory serves). A sign nearby noted that the next planet would be on the other side of the radio dish antenna, and that Pluto (still a planet in those days) would be on another hill some few kilometers away. Great way to impress upon one the true vastness of the distances.

[@jrjubach]

Damn. You were at Arecibo. That’s freaking awesome.

[@k19widow]

It was very clear as soon as he placed the earth, you don't look up at the sun and have it fill half the sky!

[@davecrupel2817]

​@@jrjubachit's a great tragedy what happened to Arecibo. :(

[@jrjubach]

@@davecrupel2817 Yes! I was quite saddened by that.

[@tommytunes303]

Absolutely mind-boggling.

[@stibiumowl]

The Sun happens to be an inflateable pumpkin joke made me laugh.

[@Steevvee]

The size of the solar system is so gigantic its scary to think about. But whats even more scary is we know of super massive black holes out there that are bigger then our entire solar system.

[@rolirolster]

It would have been nice if you did Voyager 1 and 2 as well and then explained just how long it took for them to get to that distance. Great video man!

[@Mister_Pedantic]

Interesting that you should mention the Voyagers. I live in Toronto and several years ago I heard it explained this way. If home plate in the Skydome represents our Sun and the outfield fence represents the distance that the Voyagers travelled in thirty years, then the nearest star is represented by Kansas City, Missouri.

[@anthroparion]

They are both the fastest man made objects ever... but on a cosmic scale, they are indeed crawling.

[@v4v819]

You're defying gravity all the time, try defying the speed of light, instead... So what's the big deal about gravity, I'm not impressed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@bobwagemakers5055]

if the earth was a ferrero rocher voyager 1 would be 71km away if we meausured in march 23. That is a speed of 17cm per hour.

[@aa1bb2cc3dd4]

@@v4v819 you replied to the wrong comment lol. You meant to reply to the one above.

[@marcd1981]

I've read on and follow several areas of science through daily newsletters, and even though I thought I had a pretty good idea of the speed of light, you brought up a very good point I hadn't considered. When you stated that light would be crawling at a snail's pace at those distances, that was an amazing realization point for me. Thanks for the video, have a great week!

[@mikeslemonade]

Heliocentric model and narrative is fake and inaccurate

[@McDee]

never in my life did I think my jaw would drop after seeing an inflatable pumpkin

[@russellamaru5175]

Well done in demonstrating the size comparisons between the planets and the vast distances between the planets and the sun. Thanks!!

[@charleschristian7806]

I know we've all seen the pictures and examples of earth and the sun but it's still cool to see someone do a physical example it blows my mind once again the scale of our solar system

[@Vikanuck]

This was just… awesome lol. It reminds me of that old episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy when he did this, but his scale was a little bigger and he had to drive like 10 miles away or whatever to get to Pluto.

[@JakeKoenig]

1:04 - For those who haven't studied astronomy, that huge green thing at the top of the sun is called the Great Deku Tree. Future astronauts will be able to enter it with slingshots and kill all the spiders living inside.

[@rustyaxelrod]

Nice thought exercise, I had considered working this out just for myself. I understand why you use two scales to make it work and appreciate the significance. Thank you! 👍

[@yKuroKenshi]

I think this is the first video ever to let me with my mouth so wide open that it literally hurt my jaw, I'm dead serious.

[@robertYTB78g]

Great, your purposeful error to keep the model on a playing field gave me a quicker grasp of the relative distances than the full scale model videos I have also watched.

[@RafaelXavierOcc]

Amazing demonstration and explanation, it really made me understand a little more of what does the immensity of the universe means. I think this is video contributes a lot to what I think is one of the most fundamental qualities of science - to create a tangible meaning on the universe around us. Thank you!! already a fan

[@501blues6]

Fantastic explanation. One of the best distance of the planets I've seen. Really made me think and be in awww.

[@mts7274]

How can this be so different than what Digital Astronaut is showing? kzbin.info/www/bejne/hHSXoX-hir6joKM

[@sexybrunette89xxx]

I am so glad you invcluded a Pluto in this video and gave it love, which deserves ❤

[@_S.H_]

One of the best representations of our solar system size that I have seen

[@sleepdeep305]

Gosh I can’t believe the amount of people complaining about the size distance disparity. It wouldn’t even be practical to set up that model at that point, although there are a couple examples worldwide.

[@steveaustin2686]

You can make your own solar system model that is to scale with the size of the celestial objects and to distance. You need a playground ball, roughly 8in or 20 cm in diameter, for the Sun and then you need some pinheads, 2 peppercorns, and some various nuts for the planets and moons. I used the model below a few times for homeschool and public school presentations. The planet walk is 1,019 yards or roughly 0.6 miles or almost a kilometer long (0.93) and includes Pluto. Dropping Pluto saves 242 yards (221m). So the Sun and the planets are still visible and the model is short enough for an easy walk, even for young children. It doesn't take much extra work to figure out how far the moons are from the various planets, ie the Moon is 2.4 inches (6 cm) from Earth. During the walk, the asteroid belt starts 17 yards (paces) past Mars and lasts for 26 yards (23.7m). On average, the asteroids are 6 inches (15cm) apart at this scale and vastly smaller than the pinheads for even the largest asteroid. The mass of ALL of the asteroids in the asteroid belt are estimated to be just 3% of the mass of the Moon. For Proxima Centauri, pick somewhere roughly 3,990 miles (6,421km) from where you are doing the walk, as at this scale, that is how far the nearest star is from Earth. This really shows just how BIG the solar system is and just how small even the planets are. Yet that spacecraft are routinely sent to them, shows the accuracy that space agencies need. THE THOUSAND-YARD MODEL or, The Earth as a Peppercorn Copyright 1989 by Guy Ottewell Google the title and you should find various websites and pdfs with his model.

[@joshbenjamin1100]

Around 6:01, you say Uranus is about four times diameter of the Sun. I am guessing you meant Earth? That aside, fantastic video! I love the extra explanations at the end for a model that has sizes and distances to scale. Stuff like this is mind blowing, and of course then considering the galaxy, let alone the universe, is nearly impossible to really comprehend.

[@The_one_who_asked156]

He meant that your anus is four times the diameter of sun

[@mattpalmer152]

Yrea

[@ghostreh]

He says Saturn, but IT sounds like Sun, I guess

[@ZosoQQ]

As you were showing the sun from earth's distance I started thinking "Wait a minute, isn't the sun way too big? Something doesnt seem right" Until the very end where you mentioned the difference in scales of distance and relative size of the planets. It's so hard to grasp the concept of size in space, but this video does an amazing job at that.

[@frettymcfretface73]

What blows my mind is most of these planets line up exactly on the lines of this field. How convenient

[@thomassicard3733]

Some time back... I'm old, so that could have been decades, at this point... Somebody did a accurate Solar system model in (I think?) the Salt Flats of Utah. It was glorious.

[@salinagrrrl69]

Somebody did that 20yrs ago & that video may still be here. The did that model at night with lighted objects to scale

[@triskellian]

I had fun watching this video! I've seen this demonstrated a few times by different folks on the net. The one that was neat to see was showing how vast interstellar space is. 😉

[@AammaK]

That was so clever, the twist is very demonstrative! Using two different scaling methods to make it something comprehensible that fits into one glance is useful, and the revelation is also such a fun pedagogic device. I'm devastated some people in the comments seem to have missed the point so phenomenally. A lesson in media comprehension and also learning to maybe watch the things through before you start acting like you're smarter than everybody else... 😄

[@quicksmilenathan103]

Such a easy concept but you explained so much! Very cool

[@andrerobinson4862]

This video is awesome! The last couple of minutes are by far the coolest part. Im sorry that people feel the need to be so negative and nasty. Thank you for posting this video 😊

[@sunrisetacticalgear2676]

I never took an astronomy class in school, but have seen the “representation” made from colored foam balls. This was amazingly mor helpful as compared to that.

[@toddler4082]

Great stuff - an understandable perspective of the size of the planets, the speed of light, and the distances involved. The speed of light is s-l- o-o-w!

[@MrRedeyedJedi]

The speed of light is fast as fook ...fastest thing in the universe.. it's just the distances are so vast it makes it look slow

[@Iam_Yu627]

First really understandable explanation of the speed of light. Bravo!

[@VerisimilitudeDude]

I'm glad I read the description because I was going to reprimand you on the distances scale but I see that the first part was only to show the scale of the solar system bodies and not the actual scale of distance between them. One correction I do have to make, however, is that you said that Uranus is about 4 times the diameter of the sun when you meant the earth. Cheers.

[@brush1000]

I dont know why the youtube algorithm suggested this video to me, but im glad it did! Very well made.

[@davidcole217]

Phenomenal, I knew things were really spread out, but your demonstration gave it some understandable scale. Well done.

[@xjp1998]

This was really well done. I study space amature wise and I saw one video stating if you want a fast thinking of how big everything is to go with. Using the distance from the Sun to Mercury as a staring measurement. The distance between Mercury and Venus is twice the distance that Mercury is from the sun. And from Venus to Earth is twice the distance as Venus is from the sun. Use that as a rule for distance for all planets, and gives you a pretty good idea of the distances between planets. So, like, Jupiter to Saturn is twice the distance that Jupiter is from the sun, and so on.

[@justinhartnell1423]

Man what a great video lol Incredibly humbling. Perspective is everything

[@silverado5306]

Good job. I really liked the reference to the speed of light, and how "slow" it is in relation to space. It's something we all know, but seeing it on a scale is ridiculous how slowly light travels. And it's also a little sad to know that we will never leave the solar system.

[@texmexlink]

I didn’t know the planets were THAT far apart. Thanks for the lesson. Captivated me all the way through

[@afridgetoofar1818]

The distances are even further than that when you consider the planetary alignment isn’t in a nice straight line as depicted here. It’s staggered.

[@jaypie0864]

To blow your mind even more, just know this video wasn't even close! Search "Mark Rober Solar System" for an accurate video.

[@spacechannelfiver]

The scales are completely off in this video, the planets are either far too big or much too close.

[@jesseerickson662]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/mnS2eouCft-bsM0si=3NP3M1dxCa7Iz_tO This one is way better.

[@umangdave7749]

Did you watch until the last few minutes where your mind is even more blown?

[@ondrejvasak1054]

Excelent video. I always felt that models of Solar system vastly underrepresented its size, but later I understood why. It is not really possible to put things in correct distances and scale, because either the planets are too tiny to be seen by human eye, or the distances are too large to fit into one's field of vision. I thought the way you solved that problem was pretty clever.

[@livefromthe757]

good sh*t ... the 'scale' breakdown provides clarity & perspective that very few videos, channels or physicists (that I've viewed) have been able to cleanly relay

[@rayl5uk]

Wow! I was educated and fascinated! Well done.

[@jasonwebb1882]

I did something like this with my sons 4th grade class. I didn't have the to scale planets, but we explained the size difference. Now this was back in 2002. I used the high school football field. At 1 inch equal to 1 million miles, from the sun to then planet Pluto was pretty far. Even at 1 inch, Pluto was a tad over 308 feet away from the sun. The class tried to see how fast they could run the distance. When we made it back to the elementary school, I had calculated the travel time from sun to Pluto. Then I wrote it down on the blackboard. I turned off the lights and then turned them back on. I said that's fast, almost instantly the lights were on again. Yall traveled on that scale and I wish I remembered what it was and then explained even walking is faster than the speed of light. They had so much fun that day. I miss doing this with kids now.

[@thebenefactor6744]

Thanks for hammering this out before intergalactic football practice started. I really think the Gas Giants have a chance this year.

[@PS3DJ09]

Yep! They came really close to beating the red dwarves last season

[@thebenefactor6744]

@@PS3DJ09A real nail biter.

[@kirkhenry3867]

Very impressive and informative video, thank you so much for sharing! I'm starting to think that the dreams of a star trek future traveling great distances and exploring new habitable worlds might just be too far beyond our reach because of the mind boggling distances. Great video, thanks for sharing.

[@MrJeffinLodi]

Yeah, I knew something was off when you first started; glad you clarified at the end.

[@SecondsCity]

Why, if Mercury is I/2 AU from the Sun, would one need to walk "another" two football fields beyond Mercury's revised and corrected placement as stated toward the end of the video (at 9:16)? Wouldn't merely one additional football field be sufficient?

[@joshbbloom]

Great question. Mercury is approximately 0.4 AU from the Sun and the Earth is by definition 1.0 AU from the Sun. This makes Earth about 2.5x further from the Sun than Mercury. So, it's a matter of rounding (2.5 up to 3). If I were being more accurate I would have said "another 1.5 football fields". Thanks for the question!

[@Stellar32042]

Earth is 1au

[@markg7963]

Awesome! Thanks. Great point about significance. It’s not our size, it’s our unique ability to understand or at least attempt to understand our surroundings and how we got here. We are all amazing creatures in a unique place and time. A virus, a shark, an elephant, humans…. And all of our collective ancestors. All on this tiny little speck, all in a tiny fraction of time. We are unique in the universe, and we are unique between us on this planet. Sad we don’t get along better. It’s hard to share.

[@Jay-Screen]

Sharing is too hard

[@markg7963]

@@Jay-Screen sharing works well when we all contribute. But that’s been an issue since we started sharing. But then the lazy ones figured it was easier to control the government and force the sharing. Sometimes we call them kings. Sometimes we call them socialists. Just depends on who has the power. If we were smart we would give the power to the ones that contribute rather than the ones that take. But that little detail has eluded an otherwise smart species.