How do we know the diameter of the sun?

1 Answer
A. S. Adikesavan
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. .

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