Light Year to parsec

1 Parsec = 3.26 Light Years (actually slightly more, but I don't rememeber beyond 2 decimal places off the top of my head)

The Speed of light is exactly 299,792,458 metres per second. In a year there are 60 x 60 x 24 x 365.2425 = 31,556,952 seconds. So how far is a light year? Answer: 9,460,536,207,068,016 metres. About 6 million million miles.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsec
The parsec (symbol pc) is a unit of length used in astronomy. It stands for "parallax of one arc second".

It is based on the method of trigonometric parallax, one of the most ancient and standard methods of determining stellar distances. The parallax of a star is half of the angular distance a star appears to move against the celestial sphere due to the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. (See the diagram at right.) Equivalently, it is the angle subtended at a star by the radius of the Earth's orbit. One parsec is defined to be the distance from the Earth to a star that has a parallax of 1 arcsecond. It is, therefore, approximately:

360×60×60/(2π) = 206,264.8062 AU
3.08567758×1016 m
19,173,511,600,000 miles
3.26156378 light years

I knew I should have taken astronomy in high school...

Actually, conquest's calculations are only correct for C, speed of light in a vacuum. In general speed of light varies the same way sound does, and light is affected by gravity aswell.

Which is my explanation as to why planets are over a parsec away. The distance of a parsec is warped slightly near large masses (I think that was the explanation given a while back)

Every bit of matter in the largest map would fit in one pixel of one square. There isn't really any distance realism in the game.

Not that I'm complaining...that would make for a very very boring game.

According to Brad, the map is drawn in warp-adjusted parsecs, not true parsecs. Warp drive works very poorly around large masses.

Actually, conquest's calculations are only correct for C, speed of light in a vacuum. In general speed of light varies the same way sound does, and light is affected by gravity as well.

Picky, picky. Since we are talking about outer space, which for all intents and purposes IS a vacuum, and not, say water, El Conquest's diligence is appreciated (even though the term "approximately" and 8 decimal places is kinda oximoronic    )

The speed of light in a medium is inversely proportional to the refractive index of the medium. If you want to start spinning your mind, look up Cherenkov radiation, which is the glow given off when a charged particle is travelling FASTER than the speed of light in a medium. (This is the blue glow given off by "hot" fuel in a nuclear reactor).

Damn and who ever said playing games makes for dumb people.. I learn new things all the time here..



Brother Angelon

Thanx guys..ive actually got my head round the math of my question..and to Angelon..your right games do educate..next time my lil bro wants a book..im buying him a vid game!lol

I also agree, learn new stuff all the time!

I also agree, learn new stuff all the time!

Thanx guys..ive actually got my head round the math of my question..and to Angelon..your right games do educate..next time my lil bro wants a book..im buying him a vid game!lol

Damn and who ever said playing games makes for dumb people.. I learn new things all the time here..

hey no one said we were stupid just look up some sources and you will be fine. And some of us have background knowledge others don't, experience helps a great deal. Being a scientist you cannot officially say that one person is wrong or right about something you can present evidence which contradicts which is all fine and dandy but saying that someone is wrong just isn't right.

Damn and who ever said playing games makes for dumb people.. I learn new things all the time here..

Indeed.
I remember that when we were studying mythology in school that through Civilization I already knew what the Colossus of Rhodes was, what the Lighthouse of Alexandria was, etc.

I like to think about it like this,

Light takes 8.5 minutes to travel from the Sun to Earth. There are 525,600 minutes in a year. So A light year is (525,600 / 8.5) 62,000 times further than the distance between the Earth and the Sun. Then a Parsec is 3.2ish Light years, so a Parsec is 200,000 times the Earth Sun distance!

Quite hard to imagine.