Note: Fractional results are rounded to the nearest 1/64. For a more accurate answer please select 'decimal' from the options above the result.
Note: You can increase or decrease the accuracy of this answer by selecting the number of significant figures required from the options above the result.
Note: For a pure decimal result please select 'decimal' from the options above the result.
Astronomers used trigonometry to calculate the distance to stars long before the term parsec was coined, but the new unit made it easier to conceptualise unfathomable distances.
A parsec is the distance from the sun to an astronomical object which has a parallax angle of one arcsecond (1/3600 of a degree). The parallax angle is found by measuring the parallax motion (or apparent movement of a star relative to stable, more distant stars) when the star is observed from opposite sides of the Sun (an interval of six months on Earth). The parallax angle is obtained by halving the angular difference in measurements.
Once the parallax angle is established you can calculate the distance to a star using trigonometry, because we know Earth’s distance from the Sun. The distance from the Sun of a body with a parallax angle of 1 arcsecond was thus defined as a unit and, thanks to Turner, named the parsec.
With the parsec defined, deriving and describing huge distances became easy, since a distance i
Unit of length equal to 66 feet, used especially in the U.S. public land surveys. The original measuring instrument (Gunter's chain) was literally a chain consisting of 100 iron links, each 7.92 inches long. Steel-ribbon tapes began to supersede chains around 1900, but surveying tapes are often still called "chains" and measuring with a tape is often called "chaining". The chain is a convenient unit in cadastral surveys because 10 square chains equal 1 acre.