Earth has a radius of about 6400 km, the Sun has a radius of about 7.0 × 10⁵ km, and a rubber ball has a radius of 6.4 cm. If you were to construct a scale model of the solar system using the rubber ball to represent Earth, what is the radius of a ball needed to represent the Sun in your model?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

We need to find the radius of the ball that represents the Sun in the scale model. To do this, we need to find the scale ratio between the rubber ball and the Sun.

Scale ratio = (radius of the Sun) / (radius of the Earth)
Scale ratio = (7.0 × 10^5 km) / (6400 km)

Now, we can use the scale ratio to find the radius of the ball that represents the Sun in the scale model.

(radius of the Sun in the scale model) = (scale ratio) x (radius of the rubber ball)
(radius of the Sun in the scale model) = [(7.0 × 10^5 km) / (6400 km)] x (6.4 cm)
(radius of the Sun in the scale model) = 700 cm

Therefore, the radius of the ball needed to represent the Sun in the scale model is 700 cm. The answer is C.

Earth Has a Radius of About 6400 Km, the Sun