This article conveys the excitement of scientific enquiry and its importance in cultural development.
There is an interesting section on using parallax to calculate distances to stars. This motivates use of trigonometry (Ma3, level 8).
Interactive web sites about stellar parallax at: http:instruct1.cit.cornell.educoursesastro101javaparallaxparallax.htm lNoNoinstructions http:zebu.uoregon.edujsglossaryparallax.html www.ast.cam.ac.ukmjpparallax.html www.astro.ubc.caschareina311Simnew-parallaxParallax.html Distances between astronomical bodies, and an analogy of the age of the universe as a length rope, give opportunities for working with large numbers and proportional changes (Ma2 level 7), and using numbers expressed in standard form (Ma2, Level 8).
There is very useful as background knowledge and stimulus material for discussions in A-level General Studies or Science for Public Understanding.
