Solar Sytem and Our Ages

1. A FOLLOW-
UP ACTIVITY
FOR SOLAR
SYSTEM

2. How Old Are
You In the
Other Planets?

3. AIMS
• We wanted students to undersand
the relationship between planetary
orbits around the Sun and our
measure of time.

4. Assumed knowledge:
• Your birthday date is very important for
this activity.
• The Earth trips around the sun in a
year.
• We were trying to find the answer that
‘How "old" are you on the other eight
planets in our solar system?’

5. Procedure
• We multiplied our ages in Earth days.
[our age x 365]
• We divided our ages in Earth days by
the number of Earth days in a planet's
year for the terrestrial planets . The
answer was your "new" age.

6. AN EXAMPLE
• Example for Mercury - for a person 20
years old on Earth:
10 x 365 = 3650 Earth days old
3650 / 88 (Earth days in Mercury's year)
=41.47
The 10 Earth-year-old person would be
41 years old on Mercury!

7. • We found the number of Earth days in
each planet's year for the outer
planetrs Then we divided your age in
days by the number of Earth days in
that planet's year. The answer is your
"new" age.

8. AN EXAMPLE
• Example for Jupiter - for a person 10
years old on Earth:
10 x 365 = 3650 Earth days old
12 Earth years x 365 Earth days/year =
4380 Earth days in one Jupiter year.
3650 / 4380 = 0.83
The 10 Earth-year-old person would be
0.83 years old on Jupiter!

9. CHART
• We gave them a chart about it
and we want them fill it.

10. Terrestrial
Planets
Approximate
length of
year:
Your "new"
age
Mercury 88 Earth days
Venus 225 Earth days
Earth 365 Earth days
Mars 687 Earth days

11. Outer
Planets
Approxi
mate
length of
Your
"new"
age
Jupiter 12 Earth years
Saturn 29.5 Earth
years
Uranus 84 Earth years
Neptune 165 Earth years
Pluto 248 Earth years