Relative Size - Our Solar System

It is hard to think about the size of the planets and our sun, because they are soooo large. It is difficult to comprehend! But if things are soooo large, why does the sun look small in the sky? Why do the planets look so small through a telescope?

In this video, we think about the size of the Earth compared to the Sun. I also make a model of the spacing of the planets from the Sun in the solar system, which you can make at home with nothing but a roll of toilet paper and a pen!

There is a lot of math involved in calculating distances in this video - I've shown or talked through some of the calculations made. It is math that you can do (use a calculator), even though it might seem difficult because of the large numbers used! Give it a try.