Jeffrey Bennett is interviewed by Jeff Schroeder on KDVR’s” Great Day Colorado” show. They visit the “Scale Model Solar System” at CU Boulder campus in Colorado.
The Colorado Scale Model Solar System depicts the Sun, the planets, and the distances between them all on the same scale of 1 to 10 billion. That is, the real objects and distances are 10 billion times larger than the objects and distances in the model.
On this scale, Sun is about the size of a large grapefruit, while Earth is the size of the ball point in a pen. It’s 15 big steps from the Sun to Earth, about 75 yards to marble-size Jupiter, and less than a half-mile walk to Pluto, the most distant object shown in the model.