Parsec
Sir,—lf your reviewer, Ken Strongman, wishes to display erudition, he should make sure of his terminology. In his critique (April 12) of Michael Elphick he referred to “his timing measured to the nearest parsec.” Despite the suffix, the parsec is not derived from the subdivision of the hour, but is based on an angle, i.e. the second of' an arc. It is thus a measure of distance, being the
distance from which the Earth's orbit would subtend an angle of one second of arc, and is approximately 3.26 light years or roughly 3 x 10 million million kilometres. Ken Strongman surely does not suggest that Michael Elphick is so far off course? — Yours, etc., R. L. C. PILGRIM. April 14, 1982.
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Press, 17 April 1982, Page 14
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122Parsec Press, 17 April 1982, Page 14
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