Empty Space

My diagram is done! I have the inner planets designed with precision at size and scale on a sheet 4 metres wide.

Erm. It’s look a bit sparse. Turns out, space is empty. Really empty. I should think about something to fill in the gaps.

I thought I would have a basic legend for the diagram. With all this space, I can do lots more. I can add information on the details the diagram shows. After all, my consideration of all these features should be made crystal clear.

However, I also want this accessible for everyone. I can’t rely just on the standard descriptions. I need to rewrite over and over to keep the terms manageable for a reasonably literate child. But I don’t want to sacrifice accuracy – that’s the whole point! So I try to use language that is both understandable and yet does not rely on oversimplifying things. I think I’m getting there.

Some are easier than others. Perihelion – sounds fancy but simple to explain, we all understand near and far. Barycenter – much tougher, especially when your understanding of gravity might still be stuff falling towards Earth (let alone relativity). I go over each term, making sure that every one is either explained right there or refers to another term somewhere in the diagram. Tough stuff.

I’ve got one last problem. By the time I get to Mars, there isn’t anything left to add. All of the key diagrammatic components have already been covered. I mull it over. Then I decide to add one more thing – the Earth-Mars distance. We can write lots about this and use it to remind people that just to keep to this scale, we have all the planets on one side of the Sun, which is not how we should think about them in reality.

Scaling done. Diagram done. Callouts done. I’m ready to publish – the easy bit, right?