It’s pretty hard to get to grips with the scale of the solar system when Venus, the closest planet, feels really far already. But we’re practically squished together compared to Uranus and Neptune — they are a really, really, really long way away.

James O'Donoghue has made some brilliant videos about the solar system that explain this and more.

Solar system planets — distances to scale

Writing this in the middle(?) of the coronavirus outbreak I thought it might be interesting to share these charts, created from the simulations in the excellent Washington Post article “Why outbreaks like the coronavirus spread exponentially, and how to ‘flatten the curve’” by Harry Stevens.

The charts represent different strategies for containment and mitigation of the effects of a contagious outbreak.

Trying to quarantine an area — where it is difficult to attain complete quarantine — delays the effect of an outbreak somewhat, but once released the impact is still significant with a potentially high peak of cases.

Social-distancing — staying away from each other to reduce the chance of infecting others if you are infected and minimise the chance of infecting yourself — in both the bottom scenarios in the simulation manages to both delay the onset of an outbreak and reduce the peak. Not included in this simple simulation is that reducing peak infections in particular helps the healthcare system effectively treat and care for those who are infected, and look after its healthcare workers. When healthcare is not overwhelmed this further minimises both the spread of a disease and fatality rate.

Read the article, run your own simulations, and maybe consider supporting the Washington Post, here: “Why outbreaks like the coronavirus spread exponentially, and how to 'flatten the curve’”.

Disclaimer: I am not a public health professional. These charts are from my results of the simulations in the article and the simulations represent a simplified, though instructive I think, view of an outbreak and these containment methods.

Flatten the curve of an outbreak

On the equinox there is nearly exactly 12 hours of daylight and night — the day and night are perfectly balanced. On these days the sun rises almost due East and sets due West. The Spring equinox and Fall equinox are the transition between the seasons of Winter to Spring or Summer to Fall, depending on if your days are getting longer or shorter. The other seasons transition at the solstices.

Technically, the equinox is the instant “the plane of Earth’s equator passes through the center of the Sun.” (wikipedia) This usually happens around the 20 March and 23 September.

The equinox exists due to the tilt of the Earth. See Seasons

Get my new weekly sketch in your inbox

Equinox