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The Distance to the Sun (1957)
About this film
Hold up one finger at arm's length and look across it to an object on the far side of the room. Looking at the object, first close one eye and then the other. You'll see that your finger seems to shift from side to side against the background. This shift, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (Professor of Astronomy and Phillips Astronomer, Harvard University) shows, is the parallax of your finger, and parallax is the key to finding the scale of the universe in which we live. Using parallax, a number of astronomical models, and even a toy train, Mrs. Gaposchkin shows how astronomers find the distance to the sun, one of the basic steps in establishing a scale for our solar system. She indicates that though the method is relatively simple, the value for this distance is staggering: 93,000,000 miles. And yet, as astronomy reaches farther into the universe of galaxies, this becomes a relatively short distance. Confronted with such enormous figures, the non-scientist reacts at first with disbelief. The methods used to produce them, explained in this episode, will help to make astronomical measurements credible. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)
Directors & creators
WGBH Educational Foundation
Subjects
public broadcasting, AAPB, Astronomy, Solar system, Parallax, Solar parallax, Distance to the Sun, Distance to the Moon, Measurement in astronomy, Of Science and Scientists, Science education, 1950s science, Celestial mechanics, Earth-Moon distance, Observation techniques, Geometry in science, Telescope observation, Stellar background, Scientific methodology, Triangulation, Historical science programs, Boston, Santiago, Chile, Astronomical angles, Scale of the universe, Scientific explanation, Space exploration history
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