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How far is the Moon?

Space and time · level 2, lesson 2 of 6

A question to start

The Moon looks close enough to touch some nights. Could you drive there, if there were a road?

The idea

The Moon is about 384,400 km away. That is about 30 Earths lined up side by side.

At 100 km an hour, a car would take about 3,844 hours: about 160 days, more than five months, driving day and night.

The Moon is about 3,475 km across, about a quarter as wide as the Earth.

EarthMoon384,400 km: about 30 Earths

This picture is to scale: the Earth, the Moon and the gap between them.

Worked examples

1. Earths in a row. \(384{,}400 \div 12{,}756 \approx 30\) Earths.

2. Driving. \(384{,}400 \div 100 = 3{,}844\) hours. Divided by 24 hours a day: about 160 days.

3. The astronauts. The Apollo astronauts flew there in about three days, far faster than any car.

Try it

  1. About how far away is the Moon?
  2. About how many Earths would fit in a row between the Earth and the Moon?
  3. About how long would a car take to drive there at 100 km an hour?
  4. Is the Moon bigger or smaller than the Earth?
Answers
  1. About 384,400 km.
  2. About 30.
  3. About 160 days.
  4. Smaller, about a quarter as wide.

Common mistake

"The Moon is just above the clouds." Clouds are only a few kilometres up. The Moon is hundreds of thousands of kilometres away.

Where it leads