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August 18, 2017

How far away is the Moon from earth?




I'm some of the time asked what's the one thing I wish individuals would see better about the Universe. My answer is dependably the same: scale. We people have a hopeless feeling of exactly how enormous space is, and I've invested a considerable measure of energy throughout the years working out approaches to express it better.

A great many people don't generally get a handle on exactly how far away the Moon is, and it's the nearest galactic protest in the sky! So I'm happy this video turned out, and is really getting spread around the web a bit:





When I see something like this, my first response is: I would be advised to watch that match. All in all, first inquiry: is the b-ball/tennis ball measure proportion the same concerning the Earth/Moon? As it was if the Earth is a b-ball, does a tennis ball get the span of the Moon right?

The Earth is 12,740 km (7900 miles) over, and the Moon 3474 km (2150 miles) in distance across, for a proportion of 3.7.

A standard NBA b-ball is 24 cm (9.4 inches) in distance across, and a tennis ball 6.7 cm (2.6 inches), for a proportion of 3.6. Entirely great! I'll need to recall that; it's entirely valuable.

So how far away would a tennis ball Moon must be from the b-ball Earth to be proportional? Overall the moon is 380,000 km (235,000 miles) from the Earth, a separation of around 110 times its own particular width. A tennis ball would then must be 110 x 6.7 cm = 7.37 meters (around 24 feet) from the b-ball. That is a great deal more remote than the vast majority would think!

So we should incline that up a bit. On this same scale, how far away do you think the Sun is? Try not to swindle! The appropriate response is underneath the crease.

The normal separation to the Sun from the Earth is around 150 million km or 11,750 times the Earth's distance across. Since our b-ball is 24 cm over the Sun would be an amazing 2.8 km (1.75 miles) away! To scale the Sun would be 26 meters over, the span of a house. A major one.

What's more, the closest star? It would be — to scale, mind you — 800,000 km (480,000 miles) away: twice to the extent the genuine Moon is from the genuine Earth!

Space is huge. Very enormous.

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