What is a Parsec?

it's nothing more than a unit of measurement And he

couldn't exactly set an egg timer to measure one either

because despite its misleading name ah par sec is not

a measure of time but a measure of distance Well

how much distance Well considering we're talking in terms of

space you can bet it's going to be more than

on say three or four feet like a light year

As you may know especially if you've ever time to

stop Watch light travels at one hundred eighty six thousand

miles second and there are thirty one million five hundred

thirty six thousand seconds in a year On a second

year a light year is the distance light can travel

in one year so one hundred eighty six thousand times

thirty one million five hundred six thousand gives us almost

six trillion miles in a light year Trillian sixteen Yeah

a par sec is three point two six light years

for nineteen point two trillion miles a long way But

why do we need a unit of measurement that seems

so random aren't lightyears and miles enough Do we really

need to throw another unit into the next round Like

all things science there's actually a pretty sensible reason for

us to use parsecs when calculating interstellar distance well years

ago Many years ago astronomers and gaze at a star

from one end of the earth orbit and then they

see that same star Six months later when earth was

on the opposite side of its orbit well they realized

they could get a baseline for a parallax measurement That

was twice the earth distance to the sun but using

tried and true measuring methods the numbers and get a

tad too unwieldy So they pulled the idea of a

parsecs out of their brains Brains brains where g rated

insurance the particles the distance at which a star would

show a one degree arc Wrong Yeah one degree arc

Second shift if viewed across a baseline of one astronomical

unit Aii the radius of the earth orbit I got

this diagram Here's us here's the sun here's the sun

on weight distance from us to the sun that's one

You are one astronomical unit So you were on the

earth and we look at a star located here a

parallax angle measuring one mark Second is formed See that

distance from our son too That star yeah one parsecs

unfortunately it's a little tough to look at a star

that fits these parameters because well there aren't any No

stars are even that close thinking really oh snap and

an arc second is over tiny so parsons won't really

have too much use to us until telescope for development

That could make sense of that type of very precise

information But now that the technology is available it's a

cinch to measure distances between our son and all the

other stars out there The next time your mom ask

you to hand her the part sack while you could

tell her to go Take a long trip into space 00:03:38.038 --> [endTime] And it won't even be an insult