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When you celebrate your birthday, the Earth has circled the sun once from your last birthday. A year on Earth is 365 days long but the length of a year on other planets changes with the distance the planet is away from the sun. Here is a table of one revolution around the sun for the nine planets.

How long it will take for each of the planets to circle around the Sun?

Planets Time of revolution around the Sun
Mercury 88 days
Venus 224.7 days
Earth 365.25 days
Mars 687 days
Jupiter 11.86 years
Saturn 29.46 years
Uranus 84.01 years
Neptune 164.8 years
Pluto 248.5 years

equation.gif (1739 bytes)Age in Space

A p = A e ´ 365 / T p

Where

A p = age on other planets
A e = age on Earth
T p = time of one revolution around the sun

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Tom is 12 years old.  What would his age be if he lived on Mercury?

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From the above table, substitute in the equation.

A p = 12 x (365/88) = 49.8 years old

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Linda just celebrated her 10th birthday. How old would Linda be if she were to spend her life on Neptune?

Estimate the answer:

ans_a.gif (231 bytes) Less than 1 year old
ans_b.gif (220 bytes) Between 1 and 5 years old
ans_c.gif (227 bytes) Over 5 years old

 

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