second of arc
Americannoun
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
This was a significant technical challenge, since, even for the nearest stars, parallax angles are usually only a fraction of a second of arc.
From Textbooks ● Oct. 13, 2016
University of Toronto astronomers, give results for the bending of a stellar ray just grazing the sun's edge, within one-hundredth of a second of arc of Einstein's prediction that they would be deflected 1.75 seconds.
From Time Magazine Archive
At this point the angle between the top and bottom of the ball and your eye will be about 0.2 of a second of arc.
From The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects by Edward J. Ruppelt
A "second" of arc means the 3600th part of a degree, just as a second of time means the 3600th part of an hour.
From Pioneers of Science by Sir Oliver Lodge
It includes 454,875 stars, nearly to the tenth magnitude, and their positions are reliable to about one second of arc.
From A Popular History of Astronomy During the Nineteenth Century Fourth Edition by Agnes M. (Agnes Mary) Clerke
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
