5 ms·

The Sweden Solar System

195 points by acangiano 16y ago

arkitaip 16y ago
I am Swedish and had no idea. Truly TIL!
- yesbabyyes 16y ago
  Me too, from Stockholm and I see Globen every day, and I had no idea about this. Cool!
  - cpach 16y ago
    I didn't even know Globen was the world's largest hemispherical building :)
    - Eurofooty 16y ago
      I live just down the road from Globen. My kid is gonna like this.
JacobAldridge 16y ago
Very impressive - Wikipedia also has a good page listing other examples around the world, including instructions on how to build your own (presumably, over a slightly smaller distance) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_system_model http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_system_model
- rudepeklo 16y ago
  One of them is my home city, Hradec Kralove. It's a very nice walk, makes one to realize the vast distances in space. The Swedish one is much cooler though :)
rospaya 16y ago
Zagreb, Croatia has the same thing. Most people just notice the sun, but I took my time and found all of them. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Zagreb_solar_system
- Splines 16y ago
  wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Views http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Views
temptemptemp13 16y ago
This is one of those things people are going to talk about in 3000 years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_Correlation_Theory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_Correlation_Theory
- oiuyuiopiuy 16y ago
  Lots of books about 'were the ancient swedes aliens' - who came to earth in a flat pack spaceship?
husted 16y ago
Very nice, I had no idea. There's a similar solar system where I grew up[1], scale is 1:1 billion. Easier to walk but not as impressive as the one in Sweden. [1] http://www.planetstien.dk/Planetarypath.htm http://www.planetstien.dk/Planetarypath.htm
- twsted 16y ago
  There's a similar solar system where I grew up, too. Scale is 1:1.
techiferous 16y ago
I wonder if they slowly move the bodies that have elliptical orbits.
aaronsw 16y ago
There's a nice one around Boston (much smaller, obviously, but might be more accessible for HN readers): http://www.mos.org/sln/wtu/css.html http://www.mos.org/sln/wtu/css.html
lysium 16y ago
Very impressive. Not only are the distances in proportion, but also the sizes and the sizes to the distances. Didn't know this was possible.
rsaarelm 16y ago
For another fun scale-comparing trick, if you had a model of the whole visible universe, somehow flattened into 2D, with the distance between Sol and Alpha Centauri being around a millimeter, you should be able to fit the whole thing on a half of the Earth's surface. With the Sweden Solar System scale, Alpha Centauri would be around five times the distance to the Moon out, so there's still a bit of a hurdle visualizing how the two scales fit together.
alienreborn 16y ago
Finnish Solar Model http://www.ursa.fi/ursa/aurinkokuntamalli/eng/ http://www.ursa.fi/ursa/aurinkokuntamalli/eng/ I visited all the inner planets recently by biking around the city.
duck 16y ago
This was in today's "Now I Know" newsletter (http://dlewis.net/nik/ http://dlewis.net/nik/) which is run by Dan Lewis who is on HN. Highly recommend it for great finds like this.
- DanLivesHere 16y ago
  Thanks for the mention :) I publish an issue daily. It's a passion (and sometimes a headache)... so much neat stuff out there, need a way to share it. Glad to have other HN ppl reading :)
markszcz 16y ago
"the world's largest permanent scale model of the solar system. " Right, last I heard our continents move. Yes this wont change tomorrow or any time soon, but its still not permanent. Not so long ago (whats 250 million years in respect to the universe) all the continents where connected: http://www.newgeology.us/Pangea.png http://www.newgeology.us/Pangea.png I'm not trolling, its just not permanent. Anyway I love that Pluto is there. It will always be a plant to me even though it was dropped from our solar system.
- englishVoodoo 16y ago
  Continents move but Sweden is pretty far from the edges, making the whole installment pretty set, tectonic plate wise. Still not permanent with your definition though, as we all eventually will stop existing.
  - markszcz 16y ago
    My friend I think you missed a great HN article: 2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal (http://apps.ycombinator.com/item?id=2201469 http://apps.ycombinator.com/item?id=2201469) I think if someone really wanted to, they could witness this phenomenon. =)
unicornporn 16y ago
The sun is located a couple of kilometers from my home. Another planet about 20 meters from my workspace and I've only known about it since a month back when a guy from London told me about it. It's well hidden, right in front of our eyes.
invisiblefunnel 16y ago
Sagan Planet Walk in Ithaca, NY: http://www.sciencenter.org/saganpw/map.asp http://www.sciencenter.org/saganpw/map.asp
tjic 16y ago
Earth is just shy of 8 km from the sun in this model. ...which reminds me that we're 8 light minutes out from the sun. So the 1:20 million scale happens to fall pretty close to a 1km:1 light minute scale! units(1) confirms this (and groks "light minute" - huh!). 1 km : 1 lm is 1:18 million - within 10%. To get a feel for how vast interstellar distances are, if we wanted to place Alpha Centauri on the Swedish solar system map, we'd have to put it 5x further from Sweden than the moon - at this insane scale, interstellar distances still require interplanetary distances!
civilian 16y ago
And Zurich! Made for an awesome hike. But we never made it to Pluto. http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2008/11/visiting-zrich/ http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2008/11/visiting-zrich/

195 points by acangiano 16y ago

arkitaip 16y ago

I am Swedish and had no idea. Truly TIL!

yesbabyyes 16y ago
Me too, from Stockholm and I see Globen every day, and I had no idea about this. Cool!
- cpach 16y ago
  I didn't even know Globen was the world's largest hemispherical building :)
  - Eurofooty 16y ago
    I live just down the road from Globen. My kid is gonna like this.

JacobAldridge 16y ago

Very impressive - Wikipedia also has a good page listing other examples around the world, including instructions on how to build your own (presumably, over a slightly smaller distance) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_system_model http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_system_model

rudepeklo 16y ago
One of them is my home city, Hradec Kralove. It's a very nice walk, makes one to realize the vast distances in space. The Swedish one is much cooler though :)

rospaya 16y ago

Zagreb, Croatia has the same thing. Most people just notice the sun, but I took my time and found all of them. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Zagreb_solar_system

Splines 16y ago
wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Views http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Views

temptemptemp13 16y ago

This is one of those things people are going to talk about in 3000 years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_Correlation_Theory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_Correlation_Theory

oiuyuiopiuy 16y ago
Lots of books about 'were the ancient swedes aliens' - who came to earth in a flat pack spaceship?

husted 16y ago

Very nice, I had no idea. There's a similar solar system where I grew up[1], scale is 1:1 billion. Easier to walk but not as impressive as the one in Sweden. [1] http://www.planetstien.dk/Planetarypath.htm http://www.planetstien.dk/Planetarypath.htm

twsted 16y ago
There's a similar solar system where I grew up, too. Scale is 1:1.

techiferous 16y ago

I wonder if they slowly move the bodies that have elliptical orbits.

aaronsw 16y ago

There's a nice one around Boston (much smaller, obviously, but might be more accessible for HN readers): http://www.mos.org/sln/wtu/css.html http://www.mos.org/sln/wtu/css.html

lysium 16y ago

Very impressive. Not only are the distances in proportion, but also the sizes and the sizes to the distances. Didn't know this was possible.

rsaarelm 16y ago

For another fun scale-comparing trick, if you had a model of the whole visible universe, somehow flattened into 2D, with the distance between Sol and Alpha Centauri being around a millimeter, you should be able to fit the whole thing on a half of the Earth's surface. With the Sweden Solar System scale, Alpha Centauri would be around five times the distance to the Moon out, so there's still a bit of a hurdle visualizing how the two scales fit together.

alienreborn 16y ago

Finnish Solar Model http://www.ursa.fi/ursa/aurinkokuntamalli/eng/ http://www.ursa.fi/ursa/aurinkokuntamalli/eng/ I visited all the inner planets recently by biking around the city.

duck 16y ago

This was in today's "Now I Know" newsletter (http://dlewis.net/nik/ http://dlewis.net/nik/) which is run by Dan Lewis who is on HN. Highly recommend it for great finds like this.

DanLivesHere 16y ago
Thanks for the mention :) I publish an issue daily. It's a passion (and sometimes a headache)... so much neat stuff out there, need a way to share it. Glad to have other HN ppl reading :)

markszcz 16y ago

"the world's largest permanent scale model of the solar system. " Right, last I heard our continents move. Yes this wont change tomorrow or any time soon, but its still not permanent. Not so long ago (whats 250 million years in respect to the universe) all the continents where connected: http://www.newgeology.us/Pangea.png http://www.newgeology.us/Pangea.png I'm not trolling, its just not permanent. Anyway I love that Pluto is there. It will always be a plant to me even though it was dropped from our solar system.

englishVoodoo 16y ago
Continents move but Sweden is pretty far from the edges, making the whole installment pretty set, tectonic plate wise. Still not permanent with your definition though, as we all eventually will stop existing.
- markszcz 16y ago
  My friend I think you missed a great HN article: 2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal (http://apps.ycombinator.com/item?id=2201469 http://apps.ycombinator.com/item?id=2201469) I think if someone really wanted to, they could witness this phenomenon. =)

unicornporn 16y ago

The sun is located a couple of kilometers from my home. Another planet about 20 meters from my workspace and I've only known about it since a month back when a guy from London told me about it. It's well hidden, right in front of our eyes.

invisiblefunnel 16y ago

Sagan Planet Walk in Ithaca, NY: http://www.sciencenter.org/saganpw/map.asp http://www.sciencenter.org/saganpw/map.asp

tjic 16y ago

Earth is just shy of 8 km from the sun in this model. ...which reminds me that we're 8 light minutes out from the sun. So the 1:20 million scale happens to fall pretty close to a 1km:1 light minute scale! units(1) confirms this (and groks "light minute" - huh!). 1 km : 1 lm is 1:18 million - within 10%. To get a feel for how vast interstellar distances are, if we wanted to place Alpha Centauri on the Swedish solar system map, we'd have to put it 5x further from Sweden than the moon - at this insane scale, interstellar distances still require interplanetary distances!

civilian 16y ago

And Zurich! Made for an awesome hike. But we never made it to Pluto. http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2008/11/visiting-zrich/ http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2008/11/visiting-zrich/