Have you ever tried to imagine how vast our Solar System is? The Solar System we live in consists of the Sun, eight major planets, and hundreds of moons. We can make a scaled model that is a fraction of the size of our real solar system using toilet paper and markers! Send us pictures of you with your finished product!
Question
On a toilet paper scale, how far apart are the planets in our solar system?
Materials
- 1 roll of toilet paper
- Markers
What to Do
- For our scale, we are going to use 2 squares of toilet paper for the distance between Mercury and the Sun. Unroll one squares and draw a Mercury at the right edge of the 2nd square.
- Don’t rip the squares of toilet paper – if possible, keep a long strand until you reach the end!
- Venus is 3.7 squares from the Sun, so count 1.7 squares from Mercury (you can estimate where .7 on a square of toilet paper is).
Check out the chart below to make the rest of the solar system!
| Planet/Body | Distance from Sun (km) | Squares of TP Out to Planet Orbit from the Sun |
| Mercury | 57,910,000 | 2.0 |
| Venus | 108,200,000 | 3.7 |
| Earth | 149,600,000 | 5.1 |
| Mars | 227,950,000 | 7.7 |
| Jupiter | 778,330,000 | 26.4 |
| Saturn | 1,429,400,000 | 48.4 |
| Uranus | 2,870,990,000 | 97.3 |
| Neptune | 4,504,000,000 | 152.5 |
| Pluto (Kuiper belt) | 5,913,520,000 | 200.0 |