Measuring the vast distances and volumes of the solar system is a tricky business. Variables of physical forces such as the ovoid shape of Earth and the gravitational effect change numerical outcomes, albeit by small proportions. These seemingly empirical data, represented by numbers, are changeable and have been refined over centuries. Quantifying the universe is a main point of creative friction for my work.
I have reworked my original numbers for distances from the surface of the Earth to the center of each body. For the most part, these changes reflect more standardized computations agreed upon by institutions like NASA. The number for the Earth is fairly reliable, which makes sense since it is so much smaller than the sun and moon. Once the distance is stretched to measure to the Sun, scientists use a standardized unit for a mean distance, called an Astronomical Unit, or AU. (http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/glossary/au.html) The number I chose for the Sun portion of the sculpture is derived from this.
Laura Kaufman
