English Deutsch Français Italiano Español Português 繁體中文 Bahasa Indonesia Tiếng Việt ภาษาไทย
All categories

Who to calculate the angular diameters( in radians) of the sun and the moon, as seen on the earth?
When Elipses happen on the earth because of an amazing coincidence, how to calculate the angular diameters in radians of the sun and the moon, as seen on earth.
radus of earth is given= 6,96.10^5 km.
raduis of moon is given=1,74.10^3km

2006-11-02 05:40:46 · 2 answers · asked by nice_ girl 1 in Science & Mathematics Physics

2 answers

You need radius and distance

Earth radius: 6,372 km

Moon:
Diameter: 3,472 km
Radius: 1,736 km
Mean distance: 384,401 km (less radius of Earth = 378029 km)

Sun:

Diameter: 1.392×10^6 km
Radius: 6.96×10^5 km
Mean distance:149.6×10^6 km

By trigonometry, the angle is twice the inverse tangent of radius divided by the distance.

Moon: 0.009032 radians (0.5175 degrees)
Moon corrected for radius of Earth:
0.009184 radians (0.5262 degrees)
Sun: 0.009305 radians (0.5331 degrees)

Note These are mean values. I calculated from the center of the Earth and the surface by subtracting the radius of Earth. There are several numbers you can plug in from my sources. I could not draw a diagram to explain my calculation due to the limits of Y!A.

2006-11-02 06:08:09 · answer #1 · answered by novangelis 7 · 0 0

There are some other numbers that you need for this: the distance from earth to sun; the diameter of the sun; and the distance from earth to moon. The apparent diameter in radians of either is its actual diameter, divided by the circumference of the circle centered on the earth on which the object lies. So, look up the numbers, and then heat up your calculator. (The radius of the earth is irrelevant.)

2006-11-02 13:58:46 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

fedest.com, questions and answers