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Pathways to Astronomy

Stephen E. Schneider

Chapter 52

Surveying the Stars - all with Video Answers

Educators


Chapter Questions

11:00

Problem 1

Using triangulation, make an approximate measurement of the distance from where you live to a neighboring building. Make a scale drawing, perhaps letting $1 \mathrm{cm}$ represent $1 \mathrm{m}$ (or you might let $1 \text { inch represent } 10 \text { feet }),$ and choose a baseline. Construct a scale triangle on your drawing and find how far apart the buildings are from one another.

Khoobchandra Agrawal
Khoobchandra Agrawal
Numerade Educator
01:37

Problem 2

Sirius has a parallax of 0.377 arcsec. How far away is it?

Donald Albin
Donald Albin
Numerade Educator
01:36

Problem 3

A dim star is believed to be 5,000 pc away. What should its parallax be?

Matthew Miranda
Matthew Miranda
Numerade Educator
01:22

Problem 4

If a star's parallax is 0.1 arcsec on Earth, what would it be if measured from an observatory on Mars?

Matthew Miranda
Matthew Miranda
Numerade Educator
01:03

Problem 5

Suppose a satellite is developed that can measure the parallax of stars with an uncertainty of $2 \times 10^{-5}$ arcsec. Suppose a star is measured with a parallax of $3 \times 10^{-5}$ arcsec with this satellite. What range of distances could the star be at and still fall within the range of uncertainty of the measurement?

Donald Albin
Donald Albin
Numerade Educator
02:15

Problem 6

Suppose a star 25 pc distant is observed to have a proper motion of 0.2 arcsec per year. What is the tangential velocity of the star? If measurements of its Doppler shift show it is moving toward us at $32 \mathrm{km} / \mathrm{sec}$, what is the star's overall speed through space?

Donald Albin
Donald Albin
Numerade Educator
03:33

Problem 7

How much greater is the angle of aberration of starlight measured from Mercury compared to measured from the Earth? What would the angle of aberration of starlight be as measured from Saturn?

Matthew Miranda
Matthew Miranda
Numerade Educator