PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



Delaware County Institute of Science 



Vol. II, No. i 



October, 1906 



THE SUN'S DISTANCE FROM THE EARTH, 

 Obtained from the Transits of Venus. 



BY JACOB B. BROWN. 



This paper makes no pretensions whatever to originality. 

 It is only the best arrangement your reader can make of what 

 others have at sundrj' times discovered and in divers places 

 pnt on record. 



The important problem of the sun's distance from the Earth 

 was solved nearly a century and a half ago by observing the 

 Transits of Venus ; but doubt has been cast upon the trust- 

 worthiness of some of the observations made at that time 

 though the method employed was quite correct. Other Tran- 

 sits of Venus have since come round in due course and of 

 these the fullest use has been made. Various other methods, 

 moreover, entirely different in character have been resorted to 

 and every effort used to reach a correct result ; but the fact 

 remains, nevertheless, that men of science, while feeling that 

 they are nearer the truth, are not even yet satisfied that accu- 

 racy has been attained. 



The methods employed at the time of the last Transits do 

 not vary in principle from the first one that was devised ; but 

 different and perhaps better means have been discovered for 

 taking the observations. 



The matter is more vvithin the comprehension of any ordi- 

 narily educated person than might be supposed ; and a gen- 



