If the solar system is the size of a football field how far would the earth be from the sun?

Answer 1

Well, we have to make some simplifying assumptions here, because the question selected a rectangle for a scaled-down metaphor instead of a circle or disk. Also, there's some uncertainty implied when the question says " ... the solar system is the size of ... ", since wwe really don't know how far the sun's inf'luence extends, so we don't know where the questioner wants to put the outer 'edge' of the solar system.

Let's make these assumptions:

1). Pluto is the farthest planet from the sun that we know of, so we'll say that the solar system is everything inside Pluto's orbit.

2). We'll shrink everything so that Pluto's orbit exactly fits between the goal-posts ... the orbit will be 120 yards in diameter, the orbits of all the other planets fit inside that circle, and the sun is on the 50-yard line.

-- The sun itself is about 1/2 inch across ... about the size of a dime.

-- Mercury, the planet closest to the sun, is never more than 21 inches from it; it speeds around the sun once every 88 days.

-- The earth is a ball a little less than 0.005 inch across. It moves around the sun on a circle that is 9 ft 1 inchacross, taking a year to complete one revolution. The moon stays with the earth, circling it once a month, never more than 0.15 inch away from it.

-- Jupiter, the largest planet, is a ball 0.05 inch across. It circles the sun on a path that fits inside the 23-yard lines on each side, once in each 11.8 years.

Answer 2

An IMPOSSIBLY small distance awy. I'm talking subatomic distance.(the distance between the electrons in an atom)

Answer 3

13633463956.98533 field lengths.