What to use for spheres in scale solar system project

[impsick]

Im building a scale sized model of the solar system in my living room and looking for a 41 inch half sphere for Jupiter and a 33 inch half sphere for Saturn. Thought smooth foam would work but I'm looking at a $400 price tag for that! Any ideas on what I can use in place of foam? thanks

 

[Octavia]

try some beach balls

 

[hunter audio]

Hi

Just some ideas ,

1) clay mold - paper mache - smoothed - epoxy treated for longevity .
2) fiber glass - fiber sheet lay ed on clay mold and acrylic bonding compound
3) large umbrella frame - modified & covered .

 

[SRMcGee]

impsick:

I'm no expert, but unless your living room is extraordinarily large, it seems hard to believe that a scale model of our solar system could include a 41" diameter Jupiter.

Regards,
Scott

 

[jcx]

log scale?

 

[Enzo]

Well, scale of the planets to show relative size, not scale of the entire orbital system. If Jupiter is 41" how large would be the sun?


Not cheap, but there are half domes for concealing surveillance cameras in various sizes.

 

[pinkmouse]

IIRC from school the sun is about six times bigger, so call it 240", or about 20'

 

[sofaspud]

The Sun, six times bigger than Jupiter? Not even close.

"The Sun's diameter is 864,938 miles (1,391,980 km). This is almost 10 times larger than the planet Jupiter and about 109 times as big as the Earth."

So the Sun needs to be ~34' in diameter for a 41" Jupiter.

 

[Enzo]

Cool. 50 years ago I would have known that.

 

[soundchaser]

I'm guessing that the distances between the planets are not to scale. Either that or you have a HUGE listening room

You could use beach balls or large balloons.

Good luck.

Matt

 

[sofaspud]

Yep... just trying to make a rough guess of scale, the 41" Jupiter would be over 250 miles away from that 34' Sun.

 

[pinkmouse]

School was a very long time ago...

 

[sofaspud]

I knew it was more than 6, but was surprised it was only 10. I think the difference between Earth and Jupiter is greater.

And BTW, switching to and from imperial and metric units is a breeze with Josh Madison's Convert program. It's free.

 

[picowallspeaker]

In atoms, the distance of the first orbit from the core is much more than the distance of [Mercury] from the sun, in proportion.
We're hollow!

 

[dchisholm]

. . . 41 inch half sphere for Jupiter and a 33 inch half sphere for Saturn. . . .

For those sizes I'd start with 3 or 4 half-circles cut from thin, cheap, plywood using my router and a circle jig. Attach some chicken wire or hardware cloth and form it to "look right". (A highly accurate sphere isn't required here.) Then cover it with canvas cloth or fiberglass fabric. (Auto body or boat repair shops may have the materials or give helpful advice.) Finish with fiberglass resin or several coats of polyurethane.

Dale

 

[kevinahcc20]

Start your project with the biggest object (Sun) scaled to something readily available of manageable size...perhaps a sphere of roughly 50 cm diameter. Then Jupiter and Saturn are 5 and 4 cm respectively, Uranus and Neptune roughly 1.5 cm and the rocky planets various sizes of shot.