Math Project Review: Packing to Planet

Kayra Dermawan
8-9B

This term for math we’re assigned as a traveller, travelling to

outer space. And in order to get ready for the trip, we’re assigned to
research find the best way to get there, calculate the speed, distance
and time also apply math to the magnitude of the planet. Also to make
the plan clearer, we’re assigned to make a 3D scale model of the
planet we’re visiting that reflect the actual size and attributes. That’s
the mission of this terms’ project. The goals and objective that I will
have to achieve in the end of the project is to achieve all the HP
criteria, which are applying scale, applying math to this project and
etc.
The planets that I chose to travel to are Mars & Saturn. Mars is
the closest planet from earth. Known as the “Small Red Planet” mars is
the fourth planet from the Sun and the second smallest planet in the
Solar System, after Mercury. Mars’ mass compared to earth’s mass is
0.107 (1.07 x 10^-1) kg times smaller. While its diameter is 0.532
(5.32 x 10^-1) km times smaller. Earth is closer to the sun compared
to mars. Earth is 78,300,000 (7.83 x 10^7) km closer to the sun
compared to Mars.
The second pleanet I chose to travel to is saturn. Saturn is a gas
giant and it’s the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest in
the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn is named after the Roman god of
time and this is perhaps why the slowest (in orbit around the Sun) of
the five bright planets was named after him. In Roman mythology,
Saturn was the father of Jupiter. Saturn is clearly bigger compared to
Earth since it’s part of the outer planets. Saturn’s mass compared to
earth’s mass is 95.2 (9.52 x 10^1) kg times bigger. While its diameter
is 9.13 km times bigger. And also Earth is 1,283,400,000 (1.2834 x
10^9) km closer to the sun compared to Saturn.
We can see that the distance from Earth to other planets is so far
away. If we compare it to the distance from school to my house, we can
really see how actually far it is. The distance from my house to school
is 7,9 km and the average speed of my car is 30 km/h. So theoretically,
it will take around 0.26333333 hours or 15.8 minutes. Compared to
going to America from Indonesia with North American X-15 aircraft. The
speed if the X-15 aircraft is 7,200 km/hour and the distance from
Indonesia to America is 14,952 km. So it will take only 2.07 hours to go
to America with the X-15 aircraft from Indonesia.
Compared to travelling from earth to mars using Apollo 10 the
fastest manned spacecraft in the world. The speed of Apollo 10 is
39,897 km/h and the distance from earth to mars is 225,300,000
(2.253 x 10^8) km. So it will take 5647.04113 hours or 33.61334
weeks. Travelling to Saturn is even farther compared to all of the
above. The distance from Saturn to Earth is 1,200,000,000 (1.2 x
10^9). So it will take 30077.44943228814197 hours or 3.4311487
years.
So the answer to my individual focus question as well as my
group focus question, which are “How can math help us make 3D
model of the solar system?” and “How can you express the magnitude
of planets through the use of math?” Scientific can help us express the
planet’s magnitude and distance into a simpler form. It can make big
numbers or really small numbers simpler to write, without having to
write all the zeros. It can also help us do the basic operations more
easy with really big or small numbers without using a calculator. Rather
than scientific notation, ratio and also scale can also help us make the
3D model of the solar system. Ratio and scale helps us find the model
size of the planets and also distance. So that we can make a scaled 3D
model of the solar system that actually reflects the actual size and also
distance. Which proofs that my hypothesis is right.