Parallax in the park

SW Hughes, S Powell, J Carroll… - European Journal of …, 2015 - iopscience.iop.org
European Journal of Physics, 2015iopscience.iop.org
This article describes a parallax experiment performed by undergraduate physics students
at Queensland University of Technology. The experiment is analogous to the parallax
method used in astronomy to measure distances to the local stars. The result of one of these
experiments is presented in this paper. A target was photographed using a digital camera at
five distances between 3 and 8 metres from two vantage points spaced 0.6 m apart. The
parallax distances were compared with the actual distance measured using a tape measure …
Abstract
This article describes a parallax experiment performed by undergraduate physics students at Queensland University of Technology. The experiment is analogous to the parallax method used in astronomy to measure distances to the local stars. The result of one of these experiments is presented in this paper. A target was photographed using a digital camera at five distances between 3 and 8 metres from two vantage points spaced 0.6 m apart. The parallax distances were compared with the actual distance measured using a tape measure and the average error was 0.5±0.9%.
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