SIZES AND DISTANCES IN THE SUN-EARTH-MOON SYSTEM:
An Introductory Astronomy Lab
Summary and Conclusions
This Lab should have given you an idea how the ancient Greek Astronomers
were able to arrive at estimates of sizes and distances of the Earth, Moon
and the Sun using simple observations and models. You should have gained an
appreciation for their remarkably astute reasoning and the quality of their
estimates in light of the technological limitations they faced in making
their observations. Remember that they did not have telescopes, a technology
that was not available to astronomy until Galileo, 1500 years later. The
concept of a model and how it is used to extend our understanding of the
natural world is important to all of Science. From this Lab we have seen that
even these very simple models allow us to make remarkable distance estimates
when coupled with observations. Furthermore, we have introduced the concept
of a distance ladder, a key concept in astronomy which allows us to take
terrestial measurements of distances and extend them to the extremely large
distances to objects in the Universe. The distance ladder that lets us make
estimates of distances to galaxies has many more rungs and is being worked on
by present day Astronomers.
Summary Table:
Actual Values
Values determined from your measurements in this Lab.