Question

Assume the diameter of the Earth (12,700 km) is scaled down to 1 cm and answer the following:

(a) How large is the Sun (diameter: 1.4×106 km) on this scale?

(b) How far away is the nearest star (distance: 4.24 light-years) on this scale?

Answer 1

So we are given $1.27\times10^{4}=1cm$

(a) $Sun =\frac{1.4\times10^6}{1.27\times10^4}=1.1\times10^2cm$

(b)1 light year $=9.46\times10^{12}km$

nearest star=$\frac{4.24\times9.46\times10^{12}}{1.27\times10^4}=3.15\times10^9cm$