I was learning about the Parallax method of distance measurement and thought of something.

The parallax method is a geometrical method, normally used by astronomers to detect the distance to a star, or any celestial body from Earth. It is commonly known as Trigonometric Parallax or Stellar Parallax, which uses the apparent shift in the background against which the star is seen.

To measure such shifts, it uses two angles, each of which is formed by viewing the star from two different points on the Earth’s orbit.

It is measured by simply taking the two angles and the distance between the two points on the orbit, i.e. 2 AUs, and using basic trigonometric functions to determine the distance.

Due to the huge difference in the distance between the actual star and the two points in the orbit, the value of the angle computed, i.e. theta, measured in degrees, is so small that it is almost negligible. To combat this problem, physicists have come up with the idea of dividing each of those degrees into smaller parts known as Arcminutes. An Arcminute is defined to be one-sixtieth of a degree.

An Arcsecond is again a further break-up of an Arcminute, where one 1 arcsecond equals one-sixtieth of an Arcminute and one three thousand six hundredths of a degree.