Fruit Solar System

This activity, from the Royal Observatory Greenwich, helps students grasp the various sizes of planets in our Solar System using mostly fruit, with some other items. The class discussion before the activity encourages students to take an educated guess as to which planet each item represents.

Equipment per team (multiply as necessary for teams):

1 watermelon
1 large grapefruit
1 large apple
1 orange (slightly smaller than apple)
2 cherry tomatoes
1 blueberry
1 large peppercorn

Students need to order the planets by distance from the Sun. Since the distances involved are too big for the classroom, the objects can simply be placed beside each other. If desired the planets can be spread out properly using a distance scale, given in a table.