If you were to use a 1 foot (12 inch) basketball to represent the sun, how far would it have to be from the earth to be an accurate scale model?

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Liliana Velazquez

Physics

30 January, 09:50

If you were to use a 1 foot (12 inch) basketball to represent the sun, how far would it have to be from the earth to be an accurate scale model?

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Talan Kim · Answer 1

107.521 feet First, you need to determine the scale of your model. You want to use 1 foot to represent the diameter of the sun which is 864575.9 miles. The sun is 92.96 million miles from the earth. So let's make a couple of ratios to express this (I know I'm using feet on the top and miles on the bottom. This is OK as long as the same units are in the same relative positions). So let's make the ratio 1/864575.9 = X/92960000 Multiply both sides by 92960000 92960000/864575.9 = X 107.521 = X So you would have to place your earth 107.521 feet from your sun to be an accurate scale model.