Naked Science Forum

Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: thegers91 on 28/10/2009 09:51:54

Title: Astronomy help??
Post by: thegers91 on 28/10/2009 09:51:54

How do you calculate the power per unit area incident on the earth from the sun, if you have the temperature and radius of the sun given?

any help would be greatly appreciated :)

Title: Astronomy help??
Post by: Mr. Scientist on 28/10/2009 10:31:10

http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/Numbers/Math/Mathematical_Thinking/sun12.htm

Title: Astronomy help??
Post by: Bored chemist on 28/10/2009 19:28:55

From something like this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan%E2%80%93Boltzmann_law
The Sun is (oddly) quite a good aproximation to a black body.
You can calculate the total energy dissipated by the sun then work out what fraction of that hits the earth.