The Size of the Solar System

We also need to scale the planet sizes. First we remember that 1 AU = 150 million km. If we take our previous example where 1 AU is the equivalent of 2.5 yards on the football field, we convert 2.5 yards to inches...So, that's (2.5 yards) x (36 inches per yard) = 90 inches.

Thus, if we want to convert km sizes of planets to inch sizes on our football field, we multiply by 90 inches, then divide by 150 million km.

Example:

Let's say we want to find out how large Earth's diameter is on our football field. Earth has a diameter of 12,756 km. We plug this into our formula:

Earth's diameter

=

(12,756 km)

X

90 inches 150,000,000 km

=

0.0075 inches