How+fast?+How+far?

If you were a snail how would you measure distance and speed?

This section will look at how fast things go and how far they travel.

One
Let's start our measurements of speed and distance with some 5 year olds. First up collect estimates from the class/group as to how fast the average 5 year old will take to run 100m - make a note of your estimates. Now how far do you think they will go if they travel at their 100m speed for one hour (I know that is not possible but we are dealing with Super Kid here). Estimate how far away from the school they will run. You should have two estimates.

Now do the same with members of your class (whatever year you are). Make a note of your 100m and one hour estimates. Maybe put a pin on a map to show how far you think they will travel.

Let's check it out.

'Borrow' (you have to give them back) 3-4 5 year olds who would be happy to be in your trial. Have each of them individually run 100m - time them. Now work out an average time. How close were your 100m estimates? Work out how far they would travel in an hour.

Now have 3-4 members (volunteers) of your class do the same thing. Work out the average time? How close were your 100m estimates. Work out how far you would travel in an hour.

Identify somewhere 100 kilometres from the school. How long will it take your Super 5 year old to run there? How about you?

Two
Let's check out the fastest runner on the planet. Find out what the world record for 100 metres is - who set it and when? Now how far would he (it is a man) travel in one hour? How long would it take for him to cover the 100 kilometres?

Three
Do a bit of research around fast animals, birds, fish, land animals. Report back to your class.

Four (teachers will need to work out controlled conditions for this one)
Estimate how far a car will travel at 50 kilometres an hour in the same length of time as the 100m record. Put names / markers out before the 'test run.' Do the test run - how close were you?

Now double the distance covered to get a feel from how far a car will travel at 100 km per hour.

Five
Develop a ripple map showing how far various people, animals, machines will travel out from your school. [You might need some close maps and some on a larger scale - Google maps or atlases]. Possibly look at travel distances in one hour and in one day.Use colour or flags to identify each ripple. What can you say about living in New Zealand and distance.

Six
A bit of research. First talk about it in your group / class and do some predicting. What is the range of the predictions? Paste these on the How Far, how fast reflections page. How long would it take a car travelling at 100 km per hour, a jumbo jet, the space shuttle [Wikipedia] to travel to Auckland Sydney London Around the world [at the equator] To the moon To Mars To the Sun?

Now settle down with your spreadsheet and work out actual times.

What are the implications of some of these numbers?

Seven
How big is out solar system? Check out this document and get ready for THE WALK! Do quite a bit of talking about it. Think back to how far our 5 year old can run??

The Walk
It is now time to go out. There is a lot to talk and think and reflect on. While you are doing this also think about how long it took to travel some of these distances. Put some of your reflections and your prediction on the site.

Speed of light
Light travels really, really quickly. It travels at approximately 300 000 kilometres every SECOND! Our fastest rockets travel at about 30 000 an hour. __Use a spreadsheet to work out how far light travels in a minute, an hour? In a day? In a year? __Post your groups findings

This last distance is called a light-year and is used for measuring the huge distances in space. Kilometres might be quite a long way to walk but they just don’t cut it when measuring distances between stars and galaxies.

Now use your spreadsheet to find out the following: A. It is 150 000 000 kilometres from the sun to Earth – how long does it take the light to travel from the sun to Earth? That is, how long has the sun peeped over the horizon before we see it?

B. Pluto is about 6 000 000 000 kilometres from the sun – how long does it take light to get there? If you were standing on Pluto you would have very cold toes because our sun would look just like a star from way out there.

C. The distance to the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, is 4.2 such light-years. How far is that in kilometres? Using our One Km model where 6 000 000 kilometres is represented by one metre how far away from where we are standing is the nearest star – how close was the prediction you made? Work out how far away that is on a map of Earth.