Crosswords1 min ago
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Hi everyone,am new here,what a fantastic site,the answer to another topic prompted me to ask the following question. If the planet Earth was the size of a pea,how far would the nearest star be.I look forward to any answers.
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For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.You need to specify the size of your pea else the figures for distance will vary widely.
If your "average" pea has a diameter of around 10 mm then for ease of calculation I will take the range of size as 8.5 mm to 12.75 mm. (8.5 being ⅔ of 12.75)
Thus:
Pea = 12.75 x10^-3 m (12.75 mm)
Earth = 12.75 x10^6 m
Scale = 1 : 1 x10^9
Distance Sun ~ 150 x10^9 m (93.2 million miles)
Scaled Sun distance ~ 150 m
Distance Proxima Centauri ~ 4 x10^16 m (4.22 light years)
Scaled P.Cent. dist. ~ 4 x10^7 m (40,000 km)
and
Pea = 8.5 mm
Scaled Sun distance ~ 100 m
Scaled P.Cent. dist. ~ 2.67 x10^7 m (26,700 km)
If your "average" pea has a diameter of around 10 mm then for ease of calculation I will take the range of size as 8.5 mm to 12.75 mm. (8.5 being ⅔ of 12.75)
Thus:
Pea = 12.75 x10^-3 m (12.75 mm)
Earth = 12.75 x10^6 m
Scale = 1 : 1 x10^9
Distance Sun ~ 150 x10^9 m (93.2 million miles)
Scaled Sun distance ~ 150 m
Distance Proxima Centauri ~ 4 x10^16 m (4.22 light years)
Scaled P.Cent. dist. ~ 4 x10^7 m (40,000 km)
and
Pea = 8.5 mm
Scaled Sun distance ~ 100 m
Scaled P.Cent. dist. ~ 2.67 x10^7 m (26,700 km)
You think that's somethin?
If you shrunk the earth to that scale the observable Universe would be scaled to a size something like 20 times real the distance to alpha centauri.
I'm also very disappointed that you all ignored proxima centauri (the real closest star - other than the sun of course) presumably just because it's not visible to the naked eye.
I fully expect a interstellar dipomatic incident to ensue
If you shrunk the earth to that scale the observable Universe would be scaled to a size something like 20 times real the distance to alpha centauri.
I'm also very disappointed that you all ignored proxima centauri (the real closest star - other than the sun of course) presumably just because it's not visible to the naked eye.
I fully expect a interstellar dipomatic incident to ensue