Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Length measurement, distance measurement, or range measurement (ranging) all refer to the many ways in which length, distance, or range can be measured. The most commonly used approaches are the rulers, followed by transit-time methods and the interferometer methods based upon the speed of light. Surveying is one ancient use of measuring long ...
Various terms for the length of a fixed object are used, and these include height, which is vertical length or vertical extent, width, breadth, and depth. Height is used when there is a base from which vertical measurements can be taken. Width and breadth usually refer to a shorter dimension than length. Depth is used for the measure of a third ...
Since accurate measurement is essential in many fields, and since all measurements are necessarily approximations, a great deal of effort must be taken to make measurements as accurate as possible. For example, consider the problem of measuring the time it takes an object to fall a distance of one metre (about 39 in). Using physics, it can be ...
Lunar distance (LD), the distance from the centre of Earth to the centre of the Moon, is a unit of measure in astronomy. The lunar distance is approximately 384,400 km (238,900 mi), or 1.28 light-seconds; this is roughly 30 times Earth's diameter. A little less than 400 lunar distances make up an astronomical unit.
In antiquity, systems of measurement were defined locally: the different units might be defined independently according to the length of a king's thumb or the size of his foot, the length of stride, the length of arm, or maybe the weight of water in a keg of specific size, perhaps itself defined in hands and knuckles.
Lunar distance LD ≈ 384 402 km. [10] Average distance between the center of Earth and the center of the Moon. astronomical unit au. Defined as 149 597 870 700 m. [11] Approximately the distance between the Earth and Sun. light-year ly ≈ 9 460 730 472 580.8 km. The distance that light travels in a vacuum in one Julian year. [12]
Another device used in tacheometry to measure distance between the measuring station and a desired point is the subtense bar. [2] This is a rigid rod, usually of a material insensitive to change in temperature such as invar, of fixed length (typically 2 metres (6.6 ft)). The subtense bar is mounted on a tripod over the station to which the ...
Therefore in sketch c we see that using the principle of similar triangles, given that each triangle has identical angles, the sides will be in proportion: x the distance to the object in proportion to x', the height set on the vertical scale of the hypsometer, and h the height of the object above the observers eye-line in proportion to h', the ...