To find out which planet would have a diameter of approximately 12 cm in the scale model where 1 cm represents 10,000 kilometers, we can first calculate the actual diameter of a planet corresponding to 12 cm in the model.
- Convert the model diameter to kilometers: \[ \text{Actual diameter} = 12 , \text{cm} \times 10,000 , \text{km/cm} = 120,000 , \text{km} \]
Now, we can compare this value with the actual diameters of the planets in our solar system. The actual diameters (approximately) are:
- Mercury: 4,880 km
- Venus: 12,104 km
- Earth: 12,742 km
- Mars: 6,779 km
- Jupiter: 139,820 km
- Saturn: 116,460 km
- Uranus: 50,724 km
- Neptune: 49,244 km
From this, we can see that the planet with an actual diameter close to 120,000 km is Jupiter, which has a diameter of about 139,820 km. Thus, in the scale model, a diameter of 12 cm would correspond to the approximate size of Jupiter.