[AZ-Observing] Re: Mercury, Sun, and Earth Diameters

Tom,

I have found that the general public sometimes can't relate these "mile"
scales and ask the relative sizes of Mercury to the Sun in "Earthly"
terms....

I use the example of a football (about 1 foot long) on a football field
(300 feet long), this is a fairly good approximation.

Tony LaConte



-----Original Message-----
From: az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Tom Polakis
Sent: Wednesday, November 08, 2006 9:28 AM
To: AZ-Observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; evac@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [AZ-Observing] Mercury, Sun, and Earth Diameters


The most common question we will get when we show the Mercury transit to
the public (after "how much did that telescope cost?") will probably be
about the size of the Sun and Mercury.  I have found that one
significant figure is more than enough, and don't use km, even though
metric has been adopted in all other parts of the civilized world.

Diameters:
Sun: 900,000 miles
Mercury: 3000 miles
Earth: 8000 miles


During the transit, Mercury is about two-thirds of the way to the Sun.
Placed at the distance of Mercury, the Earth would appear less than
three times as large as the tiny, black dot.

Tom
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