The Kessel Run

Han Solo boasts that the Millennium Falcon made the Kessel run in fewer than 12 parsecs, causing Star Wars fans worldwide to think that parsecs are a measurement of time.

In truth, parsecs are a measurement of what quantity?

Length Force Mass Temperature

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2 solutions

Michael Mendrin
Dec 7, 2015

The interesting backstory to the parsec and the stellar parallax is that the existence of stars even "moving around" as seen from Earth in annual cycles contradicts the geocentric theory, i.e., Earth is center of the universe. This visible effect, caused Earth's annual orbit, is so tiny that it wasn't until the 19th century before it could be confirmed. The fact that such an annual shift in position of stars wasn't [readily] visible was long used as an argument against heliocentrism.

Prasit Sarapee
Dec 18, 2015

1 parsec = 3.26 lightyears
1 lightyear = 5.87849981 × 10^12 miles
1 parsec = 1.92 x 10^13 miles
12 parsec = 23.03 x 10^13 miles


So he didn't get far, then.

Whitney Clark - 5 years, 5 months ago

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12 parsec = 23.03 x 10^13 miles.

Prasit Sarapee - 5 years, 5 months ago

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