Sun King Activity

                                                           The Sun King activity 

During this activity, we were told to calculate the distance to the Sun from where we were standing on the Earth. We did this by using a cardboard tube, rubber bands, aluminum foil, a ruler, and parchment paper. As you can see, in the pictures, we placed the parchment paper and aluminum foil at the ends of the tube and attached them with rubber bands. We poked a small hole in the aluminum foil and drew a scale on the parchment paper. We did this so when we looked at the sun, through our tube, we would see the light shining through the hole and be able to measure the diameter of the circle. 

We then used the diameter of the circle and the length of the tube to calculate the distance to the sun. We figured out the distance to the sun was 1,400,000 miles. Our calculation was 1,200,000 miles, . This activity was a fun and engaging activity to do. It was interesting to see that by looking at the diameter of the sun and using the length of a tube, we could figure out how many miles away it was. This activity would be a great activity for students interested in astronomy.

 This activity truly put into perspective how big our solar system is. In addition, I think it would be a great activity to do with my future students because it gives them the opportunity to see things from a different perspective, and to learn to conduct research and learn about the solar system and outer space.