Professional Documents
Culture Documents
, May 3rd:
Sharks can feel vibrations in the water due to a line of canals that go from its head
to its tail, these canals are filled with sensory cells growing hair, the hair moves
when the water vibrates allowing them to quickly locate prey
The most dangerous sharks are the Great White Shark, the Hammerhead Shark,
the Tiger Shark, the Mako Shark and the Bull Shark
Shark Fin soup is a popular and traditional delicacy in Asia, Hawaii and Australia
but the practice of finning sharks is adding to the rapid decline of sharks and
hurtful to the animals. Up to 73 million sharks are killed a year for their fins
You are 1,000 times more likely to drown at sea than to be attacked by a shark
Sharks kill fewer than 10 people per year. Humans kill about 100 million sharks
per year.
Background
Even in our own cosmic neighborhood, distances in space are so vast that
they are difficult to imagine
In this activity, you are going to build a scale model of the distances in the solar system using
a roll of toilet paper
Some things to consider:
This model only shows the relative distances between the planets, yet still we need 85
feet to do it
With the scale we are using, Jupiter would be the size of a grain of salt...SALT.
Planetary orbits are ellipses, so the numbers here represent the average distance from
the sun--planets will also never be in a straight line, as we will see today.
KEY: The counts in the table are starting from the Sun...NOT THE
PREVIOUS PLANET.
Ex. After Mercury, you need 1.7 more sheets to get to Venus.
Astronomers believe there is a vast cloud of frozen comets called the Oort
cloud that surrounds our solar system. It lies ~50,000 times farther from the
Sun than the Earth is.
How many squares of toilet paper would you need to put the cloud on our scale model (of 200
feet)?
Answer 50,000 x 5.1 = 255,000
Along with the sun, other stars are also visible in the
sky.
Along with all planets orbiting the sun, the sun is also
As the Earth moves in its path around our star, there are
times a certain part of the planet is closer to the sun.
in orbit
Gravity keeps the moons orbiting around planets, and
you on Earth.
The Moon
EARTH
*Not to scale
S
U
N
L
I
G
H
T
Eclipses
Sun
Earth
Moon
Characteristics:
Mercury:
a.
Pocked with craters
b.
c.
d.
No moons
e.
2. Venus:
a.
Hottest & brightest planet
b.
c.
d.
3. Earth:
a.
Ideal conditions for living creatures
b.
c.
d.
1.
b.
c.
d.
2. Saturn:
a.
Has the most extensive ring system
i.
Rings made of: narrow bands of tiny particles
of dust, rock, and ice
b.
*To scale