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One thing that bothers me is that charts/apps like this have to use logarithmic scale due to obvious reasons, but log scale is just not very effective for most people to comprehend on an intuitive level.

In the last section each pixel is 1,000,000km, and the first section each pixel represents 1 meter, but experience wise it doesn't make the last section feel that much bigger, and I still have to keep looking at the numbers on the bottom to actually perceive the correct scale.



The sine wave down the middle of the page helps with visualizing the changing scale. If you want a linear scale, maybe you will appreciate this page: http://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.h...


I was looking for this exact link and Josh's site seems down(HN effect :))..

that page lets you appreciate the vast emptiness within which we live..

this link gives some extra details until the page is up http://gizmodo.com/this-scale-model-of-the-solar-system-will...

plus some great links in the comments.


You killed it! :-)


It's worth to do a linear scale miniature of the solar system.

At the 1:10^9 scale, it fits well within a farm or a big park, all the planets are at a viable size, and the Sun is not too big.


That could make for a cool park. I imagine you'd have clear line of sight between the planets (either by having a clear path between or by raising them up on monuments), and telescopes setup at each planet in such a way that visitors could look at the other planets without people getting in the way.

The Sun would be 1.5 meters across, the Earth would be 1.2 centimeters across, and the whole thing would be 4.5 km from the Sun to Pluto.


It would be a very boring park.


Madison, WI has a cool version of this along a main bike path: http://www.spaceplace.wisc.edu/planettrek.htm


Not the scale you're looking for, but cool nonetheless: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden_Solar_System

EDIT: Wait! I think this is exactly the scale you're proposing: http://www.jeffreybennett.com/model-solar-systems/voyage-sca...

EDIT2: Well, actually 10^10, so another order of magnitude smaller than 10^9.


I can envision a kind of zooming out effect when you cross a scale boundary, which might have made this clearer and more intuitive.


One solution to help the user experience the scale would be if the spacecraft got continuously smaller pixelwise as the logarithmic scale gradually increased.


Yes the "Powers of Ten" and Josh Worth's site, both mentioned here in the comments, are both much much better than this.




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