Saturday STEM Challenge: Make a scale model of Stonehenge
Image via telegraph.co.uk
People have always been fascinated with the world around us and the cycles it goes through, and one of the most famous examples of that is Stonehenge. Stonehenge is an ancient monument in England, and it consists on a ring of large standing stones. There are around 160 of these stones, each about 13 feet high and 7 feet wide.
For decades, archaeologists and historians have debated why Stonehenge was built, but there’s no denying that there is a relationship between the seasons and this prehistoric site. Every year, on both the winter and summer solstices, thousands of people gather at Stonehenge to watch the sunrise. On the days of the solstices, the path of the Sun lines up with the stones, suggesting that the ancient people who built this monument may have had some sort of ritual relating to the changing of the seasons. This year, to prevent large crowds at the stones, English Heritage is livestreaming the sunrise on their Facebook page, which in our timezone begins tonight at 8:07 PM.
For more information on solstices, take a look at Tuesday’s Distance Learning Module, and for more on how solstices relate to Stonehenge, check out this video:
Image via National Geographic Education Blog
*Please note that numbers in this diagram are not the standard numbering of the stonehenge stones
Image via ohiostate.pressbooks.pub
Image via ancientworldblog.blogspot.com
Image via Britannica.com
This week’s STEM challenge is similar to what’s happening in this video: build a scale model of Stonehenge! Use whatever materials you have around your home—Legos, dominoes, cardboard, or modelling clay are all good options—and the above diagrams to create your model. To get your model to scale, you’ll need some math.
Here’s what we mean: suppose you want to make your model 1/50 of the actual size of Stonehenge. Then you need to cut all the measurements of Stonehenge down by 50. An average Stonehenge stone is 7 feet wide and 13 feet tall, so to scale that down to 1/50 of its size, divide both 7 and 13 by 50—7 ÷ 50 = 0.14 feet, or 1.68 inches, 13 ÷ 50 = 0.26 feet, or 3.12 inches. In the diagram from the National Geographic, the distance from the heel stone to Stone 16 is about 10 cm. Using the map scale and some conversions, we get:
If we wanted to scale that to 1/50 of its distance, that would be 300 ÷ 50 = 6 feet.
