How far is a parsec?

Answer 1

Alexander Acosta

#3.26.Light# #years#

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Answer 2

Alexander Acosta

It is the distance that a star presents a second of parallax.

Due to Earth's rotation around the Sun, a close star appears to move relative to the background stars, a phenomenon known as parallax.

Envision a triangle with one arc second as the opposite angle and the Earth-Sun distance as the base.

There for #(UA)/(parsec)=tan(1second)#

One second must be converted to radians:

#(1 s)/(3600 s/(degrees))*(pi (radians)/(180 degrees))=4.84xx10^-6#

For so close angle #tan(alpha)~~alpha#

#(149.5xx10^6 km)/(parsec)=4.84xx10^-6#

# parsec=((149.5xx10^6)/(4.84xx10^-6))=30.9xx10^12 km#

This is in how many light years?

One light year is #365*24*3600*299.8xx10^3=9.45xx10^12 km#

So one parsec is #(30.9xx10^12km)/(9.45xx10^12 km)=3.26 ly#

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Answer 3

Luca de

A parsec is a unit of length used in astronomy, equal to about 3.26 light-years or approximately 19 trillion miles.

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Answer from HIX Tutor

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.