How do we know that the sun is 93 million miles away?

Answer 1

It's a trick problem, the classic right triangle with the Earth, Venus and Sun at the points.

IF you know the distance to Venus (use radar and get it to the foot ... or the mm)

AND you know the angle to the Sun

AND you wait until the angle from us to Venus to the Sun is 90 degrees,

(not as bad as it sounds, Venus will look like a half moon)

Then you can solve it with your pocket calculator.

Answer 2

The distance to the sun has been calculated using a technique called parallax, which involves measuring the angle shift of the sun's position relative to distant background stars as the Earth orbits around it. This method, along with other measurements and mathematical models, has led scientists to determine that the average distance from the Earth to the sun is about 93 million miles.