Layers of the Earth / Layers of the Atmosphere

I'm always all about doing things to scale. Last week in Science Club we drew a diagram of the layers of the atmosphere up the driveway but it was disappointing in one regard. The instructions we used read "Thermosphere: The fourth layer of the atmosphere is the thermosphere. It extends to outer space, thousands of kilometers above the Earth’s surface."

Hmmmm... we wanted to know exactly how many kilometers high it went! Also, a student pointed out how interesting it would be to include the layers of the Earth in the diagram too. Here are some resources and a bit of math.

I highly recommend The Street Beneath My Feet and The Skies Above My Eyes, both written by Charlotte Guillain and illustrated by Yuval Zommer.

Layers of the Atmosphere Scale Model (page 1 of PDF)

Layers of the Atmosphere
National Weather Service

Scale Model of the Earth and Its Atmosphere
Royal Society of Chemistry

Layers of the Earth nomenclature is included in the Rock Cycle Mat and Layers of the Atmosphere nomenclature is included in the Water Cycle Mat.

We've also made a beautiful Layers of the Earth Hula Hoop Loom Weaving.

So, if we begin with the Royal Society of Chemistry document as our starting point, the scale is one tickmark = 100 km.

The bottom of the cone represents the core of the Earth.

Layer #1 - Inner Core - 12.5 tickmarks

Layer #2 - Outer Core - 22 tickmarks

Layer #3 - Mantle - 29 tickmarks

Layer #4 - Crust - 0.5 tickmarks

Distance traveled to get to the Earth's Surface: 64 tickmarks

Next we incorporate the Layers of the Atmosphere information from NOAA.

Layer #5 - Troposphere - 0.1 tickmarks

Layer #6 - Stratosphere - 0.4 tickmarks

Layer #7 - Mesosphere - 0.4 tickmarks

Layer #8 - Thermosphere - 5.1 tickmarks

Layer #9 - Exosphere - 94 tickmarks

Distance traveled to get to Outer Space: 100 tickmarks

So, whatever your scale is, you have to be able to fit 164 of those units onto your paper, sidewalk, etc. You could also go to a field and walk it in paces.

Have fun with this! I'm really looking forward to showing it to my students on Wednesday.

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