To determine which planet would have a diameter of approximately 12 cm in the student's scale model where 1 centimeter is equal to 10,000 kilometers, we first need to calculate the actual diameter of the planet in kilometers.
The scale model diameter of 12 cm can be converted to kilometers using the scale ratio:
\[ \text{Actual diameter (km)} = \text{Model diameter (cm)} \times \text{Scale factor} \] \[ \text{Actual diameter (km)} = 12 , \text{cm} \times 10,000 , \text{km/cm} \] \[ \text{Actual diameter (km)} = 120,000 , \text{km} \]
Now, we need to check which planet in our solar system has a diameter close to 120,000 kilometers.
The actual diameters of the planets are as follows:
- 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 list, Saturn's diameter is approximately 116,460 km, which is the closest to 120,000 km. Therefore, in the student's scale model, the planet that corresponds to a diameter of approximately 12 cm is Saturn.