Last lesson you scaled the sizes. Today you'll discover the distances — and find out why space is called space.
Calculate scaled distances between planets
Build a walk-out scale model outdoors
Explain why space is mostly empty
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⏱ Retrieval Starter · 5 minutes
Spaced Retrieval
A mix of last lesson's content and earlier topics. What's stuck in your memory?
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📸 Homework Gallery · 5 minutes
Show Your Planets
For each planet, describe the household object you found to match its scaled size. What did you use? Was it easy or hard to find?
🚀 Core Activity · 10 minutes
How Far Apart Are They?
You've scaled the sizes. Now let's tackle distance. This is where it gets mind-blowing.
149,600,000
kilometres from Earth to the Sun
4,495,000,000
kilometres from Neptune to the Sun
💡 Prediction challenge: If Earth is exactly 1 metre from the Sun in our model, how far away would each planet be? Type your guesses in metres.
🤯 The Reality of Distance
If Earth is 1 metre from the Sun, Neptune would be about 30 metres away. That's roughly the length of a swimming pool — and most of that space has absolutely nothing in it. Space really is mostly just… space.
And remember — on this same scale, Earth itself would be a speck smaller than the head of a pin. You wouldn't even be able to see it from 30 metres away.
🌳 Outdoor Practical · 20 minutes
Walk Out Your Solar System
Time to head outside! You're going to walk out the distances to each planet using your own paces as the measuring unit.
1
👟 Measure Your Pace
Walk 10 normal steps in a straight line. Measure the total distance in metres and divide by 10. That's your pace length.
2
☀️ Place Your Sun
Put down a marker for the Sun — your starting point. This could be a shoe, a bottle, anything visible.
3
🚶 Walk & Place
Use the pace calculator below to work out how many paces to each planet. Walk that many paces, place a marker, then keep going.
4
📸 Record It
Take photos: one looking back at the Sun from each planet. Can you still see the Sun marker from Neptune?
🦶 Pace Calculator
Enter your pace length, then see how many paces you need to reach each planet.
metres per pace
Planet
Real Distance from Sun
Model Distance
Your Paces
📋 Outdoor Checklist
Measured my pace length
Placed my Sun marker
Walked to Mercury and placed marker
Walked to Venus and placed marker
Walked to Earth and placed marker
Walked to Mars and placed marker
Walked to Jupiter and placed marker
Walked to Saturn and placed marker
Walked to Uranus and placed marker
Walked to Neptune and placed marker
Took photos looking back from outer planets
🪞 Reflection · 8 minutes
I Used to Think… Now I Think…
Thinking back across both lessons — how has your understanding of the solar system changed?
🔴 I used to think…
What did you believe about the solar system before these lessons? What picture did you have in your head?
🟢 Now I think…
How has your understanding changed? What surprised you most?
💡 What surprised you most?
Pick the single most surprising thing from today's lesson and explain why.
🚀 Lesson Summary
What We Learned Today
📏
Distance Is Vast
If Earth is 1m from the Sun, Neptune is 30m away. Space is overwhelmingly empty.
🚶
Embodied Scale
Walking the distances makes the vastness of space feel real in a way diagrams never can.
🧠
Misconceptions Busted
Textbooks compress everything. Now you know the truth about how our solar system really looks.
COMING NEXT LESSON
Why Do We Have Seasons?
"We're 150 million km from the Sun. In summer, we're actually further from the Sun than in winter. So why is summer hot?"
Hint: it has nothing to do with distance. Everything you think you know about seasons might be wrong.