How do we know the diameter of the sun?
1 Answer
Jan 25, 2016
From angular spacing of the solar disc and observer's distance from Sun. The formula is diameter = 2 X (sun distance) X tan (angular spacing of solar disc/2)
Explanation:
Observer distance = Sun-distance - radius of Earth = 149591884 km, nearly. Angular spacing of diameter of solar disc = 0.5334 deg, nearly. So, the diameter from the formula is 1392684 km. If any two of these data are known, the formula approximates the third. .
