Travel at the Speed of Light through This Scale Model of the Solar System

(Photo of the Jupiter station by An Errant Knight)

When I was in middle school, my classmates and I made a scale model of the solar system in a football field. This is a common science educational activity. But what's novel about this particular model in Anchorage, Alaska is the scale. If you walk leisurely from the sun to Pluto, you're traveling at the speed of light.

Eli Menaker, a 17-year old high school student, made the Anchorage Light Speed Planet Walk in 2003. It takes about 8 minutes for light from the Sun to reach the Earth. Appropriately, it takes about 8 minutes to walk from the Sun station to the Earth station of the walk. Keep walking and in 5 and 1/2 hours, you'll reach the Pluto station.

-via Marilyn Terrell


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