IB Physics HL E 5 6 Stellar Parallax Questions

Use HL stellar parallax and magnitude evidence to determine when a star’s distance can be measured from its apparent annual shift.

Exam points

explain stellar parallax as the apparent positional shift caused by observing a nearby star from different points in Earth’s orbit
use parallax angle and d=1/p with angle in arcseconds to determine distance in parsecs
use apparent and absolute magnitude evidence to judge whether a star is close enough for reliable parallax measurement

[Maximum number: 1]

Star A is a main sequence star.

The data for Star A and the Sun are given in a table.

Calculate, in m , the distance to Star A from Earth.

$d=\left(\frac{1}{0.74}\right)(3.26)\left(9.46 \times 10^{15}\right)=4.2 \times 10^{16} \mathrm{~m}$

Distance must be stated in
metres.

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