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(p.3) |
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| Finding
the AU: Calculation of the Sun-Earth Distance
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| During
the transit of Venus, two observers on Earth view Venus at two different
points on the Sun. |
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We’ll call the angle between the two paths measured from Earth
E. |
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| Thanks
to Kepler’s
third law, we know the relative distances of all the planets from
the Sun. Case in point: We know that Venus’s distance from the Sun
is .72 times the Earth’s distance from the Sun. |
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| This
distance relationship also tells us angle V, the angle between
the two paths as seen from Venus: angle V is angle E
divided by .72. (This is true only for small angles, which these are.) |
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