Odyssey, April 2002. Editor: Kris Cerone
My Science Fair Project
By Ashley Ann Blair
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| Ashely Ann Blair. Photograph courtesy Kris Cerone. |
My name is Ashley Ann Blair and I live in Perris, CA. I decided to enter a science fair project at school. I wanted to see what my age and weight would be on each of the eight other planets. In order to do this I got on the Internet and went to nasa.gov to find the calculations.
To determine my age on another planets I found out how many days it takes for each planet to orbit the sun. Then I divided 365 earth days by the days for each planet, times my age (10). To find my weight on other planets I found the surface gravity of each planet and multiplied my weight (80 lbs) times the planet's surface gravity. Here is how it works.
Mercury obits the sun every 88 days, so my calculation looks like this: 365 / 88 = 4.15 x 10 = 41.5. That means I am 41 years and 6 months on Mercury
The surface gravity on Mercury is 38% of Earths gravity, so 80 pounds X 38% = 30.4. That computes to 30 lbs and 6 oz.
Here is how I stack up on the other planets:
| Planet | Age | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Venus | 16 years 2 months | 72 lbs 13 oz |
| Mars | 5 years and 4 months | 29 lbs 10 oz |
| Jupiter | 10 months | 188 lbs 13 oz |
| Saturn | 4 months old | 73 lbs 10 oz |
| Uranus | 2 months old | 70 lbs 6 oz |
| Neptune | 21 days old | 811 lbs 13 oz |
| Pluto | 14 days old | 41 lbs 13 oz |
If you want to know and not do all the calculations get on the Internet and go to: StarChild: Multidisciplinary Solar System Activities: Planet Hop or Your Weight On Other Worlds.
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