An Interplanetary Hike

Using an idea from the Stratton House Astronomy curriculum, we had our own Interplanetary Hike in our driveway to better visualize the distance of the planets from each other and from the sun. We started at the barn by our house and designated the barn as the sun. From there, each step we took represented 30 million miles.

When we arrived at each planet, one of the children drew the planet with sidewalk chalk and labelled it. In this picture, Duncan is drawing Neptune - 2.8 billion miles from the sun (or 78 steps from the barn).

Here is the view of the sun from our sidewalk chalk Earth. Earth is "only" 93 million miles from the sun.Here is the view of the sun (barn) from Pluto - 3.7 billion miles from the sun!After this Interplanetary Hike, I think all of us have a better understanding of the relative distance of the planets from each other and the sun.