You Learned the Solar System Wrong

My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming… Planets.

Every Physics classroom has a Solar System line like this.

Or… like this. (Sorry, Pluto.) Looking at the line, which planet is closest to Earth: Venus or Mars?

To answer, you need first know that, like many things in school, the line is a lie.

Planets are not people queuing for coffee, but rather spheroids scattered in space, always in motion, not in simple circles either, but in ellipses at untidy angles.

In the cold, dark expanse, this is the coziest Venus gets to Earth, but only about once a year and a half-ish.

Starting close, she orbits far, then comes back, needs some space -- on the other side of the sun.