Scale drawings of the solar system, both to size and distance, are never shown in science textbooks. This video answers why and shows one attempt of such a model.
Note: This is an update from a previous post. This video is at a higher resolution. Here are the details from the previous post:
Google Maps has recently developed “My Maps” where Google Maps can be annotated with pictures, lines, shapes, and points. I incorporated this new tool with one of my all time favorite lessons: The Solar System Scale Model. This model shows the Sun and the nine planets (yes I still include Pluto for comparison reasons) to scale in both size and distance. For details download the student (word document) and teacher handout (word document). You can take a look at the model in action by going to Google Maps or download the Google Earth kml file to look at in Google Earth.