Teacher's Answer Key
| diameter of M&M | _________________________ | 1 cm (10-5km) | |
| width of door | _________________________ | 1 m (10-3km) | |
| depth of Grand Canyon | _________________________ | 1 km | |
| length of California | _________________________ | 1000 km | |
| diameter of Saturn | _________________________ | 100,000 km | |
| diameter of Sun | _________________________ | 1 million km | |
| Sun/Pluto Distance | _________________________ | 10 billion km | |
| distance from Earth to nearest non-solar star | _________________________ | 1013km | |
| radius of Milky Way disk | _________________________ | 1017km | |
| distanced from Earth to farthest know object | _________________________ | 1024km |
Additional Resources:
"Powers of Ten" video. It can usually be found in the Astronomical Society of the Pacific's catalog for about $40. Sometimes you can find it on sale! See http://www.aspsky.org/aspcat/video.html
You might have to lead a classroom discussion about the difference between "distance" and "size". Be prepared to give other examples...including very small objects. Here are a few good things to know:
classical radius of proton: 10-18 meters
diameter of water molecule: 10-10 meters
size of typical cell: 10-6 meters
size of a typical dust particle: 10-4 meters