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Using maths to understand the universe

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Planet Earth with lines showing air travel routes around the world
Using maths to understand the universe

SUBJECTS:  MathsScience

YEARS:  7–8, 9–10


When completed, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project will be the largest and most capable radio telescope available to scientists.

Radio telescopes like the SKA detect radio waves produced by events and objects in the furthest reaches of space, translating these waves into data and imagery that allow scientists to study and collect information about the universe.

This video shows the Project Scientist explaining how mathematics is used to map and understand the universe.


Things to think about

  1. 1.How is Earth different from other planets? Could we live on any of them? Can you name the planets of the solar system? What do you already know about any of these planets?
  2. 2.Think about the conditions on the different planets in the solar system. How and why might they be different? When we think about distances between planets and stars, what are the best units of measurement to use? How are they different from the ones we use in everyday life?
  3. 3.Choose a planet (not Earth) in our solar system. What can you find out about it? Use different sources to build a mathematical profile, such as its size and distance from the sun. Record your information using metric units (such as kilometres and degrees Celsius), and make sure you list the sources of your information.
  4. 4.Find a fixed point in a room and imagine it represents the position of the sun. Working in groups, choose a planet to represent and arrange yourselves in the correct order of the distance from the sun. Remember to space yourselves proportionally for the actual distances in the solar system. This is a good estimation activity and could be checked using a tape measure. To do this, you'll need a space that's at least 40 metres long.


Acknowledgements

Video © UTS Maths Inside.


Production Date: 2017


Copyright

Metadata © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia Ltd 2012 (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). Video © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). All images copyright their respective owners. Text © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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