Question

Devise a linear scale and place dots above the scale that correspond to the distance of the objects. Label the ones that you can.

Data on distance of the planets and three nearest stars from the sun attached inside!!

Answer 1

Data!

Answer 2

I think they want distance on the y axis, but idk about the x

Answer 3

each planet or star maybe? this is a strange problem

Answer 4

not sure :/

because it asks for a linear scale (like a bar scale I guess?) and when I looked it up, it looks like this? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_scale

like an actual bar? haha but idk how to apply it here! :(

Answer 5

and yes i agree! strange problem :(

Answer 6

not sure, what do you think? :)

Answer 7

I'm reading over the article and that doesn't clear things up. I'm not exactly sure what they want.

Answer 8

maybe they just want you to show the scale of the universe?

Answer 9

Maybe use just the exponents.

Answer 10

idk @jim_thompson5910 it's very weird :(

okay, so how would the exponent thing work? @tkhunny

Answer 11

It would be a logarithmic scale, but using only the exponent would make it appear linear.

Answer 12

ohh okay:) what would that look like?

Answer 13

@tkhunny would we first create the base of the scale? like this?

Answer 14

oh ok, I see now, you'd make a log scale I think

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logarithmic_scale

basically you'd have 10^1, 10^2, 10^3, 10^4, etc along the x axis for the distances

then you'd have dots near each number on the x axis

ex: a dot in between 10^10 and 10^11 for the planet mercury

Answer 15

I guess you could start off with 10^8 or 10^9 to make things easier

Answer 16

ohh okay :) so would it be like a line? like this? or like this?