Du système solaire à la gravité. (From the solar system to gravity)

Country City/Region: France, Paris (Ile-de-France)

Start-End Date: 26/06/24

Organizing Institute: PCCP (CNRS/UPC)

Number of participants: 15 (primary school students)

One-hour visit to one elementary class, grade mixed between 1st and 5th. With the support of images, we presented the solar system by showing allined planets in the night sky and then artist’s views of the planets orbiting the Sun. We then introduced the idea of gravitation. An elastic tissue with heavy and light balls was used to show the effect of the mass on space-time. The children could play by trying to make a light ball orbitate a much heavier one located in the centre of the tissue. After this visualisation excercise, artist’s views of the Sun deforming the space-time were shown along with the relative dimentions of planets in the solar system.