Cosmos/Sun/Distance: Difference between revisions

There are several theories about the relative size and distance of the Sun and Moon all with their points of evidence and points of contention. Researchers throughout the ages have used sextants and plane trigonometry attempting to make such calculations, usually concluding the Sun and Moon both to be only about 32 miles in diameter and less than a few thousand miles from Earth. Perhaps the least plausible model, certainly the most exaggerated and imaginative, is the reigning heliocentric theory claiming the Sun to be a whopping 865,374 miles in diameter, 92,955,807 miles from the Earth, and the Moon 2,159 miles in diameter, 238,900 miles from the Earth. Heliocentrists’ astronomical figures always sound perfectly precise, but they have historically been notorious for regularly and drastically changing them to suit their various models. For instance, in his time Copernicus calculated the Sun’s distance from Earth to be 3,391,200 miles. The next century Johannes Kepler decided it was actually 12,376,800 miles away. Issac[[People/Isaac Newton|Isaac Newton]] once said, “It matters not whether we reckon it 28 or 54 million miles distant for either would do just as well!” How scientific!? Benjamin Martin calculated between 81 and 82 million miles, Thomas Dilworth claimed 93,726,900 miles, John Hind stated positively 95,298,260 miles, Benjamin Gould said more than 96 million miles, and Christian Mayer thought it was more than 104 million!