A scientist in 1899 claimed the diameter is only 32 miles, some
of his points made are very interesting. ''The sun is always
somewhere between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, a
distance admitted to be less than 3,000 miles; how then can the
sun if it be so many thousand miles in diameter, squeece itself
into a space of about 3,000 miles only...can a camel ride on a
mouse, or a whale rush down the throat of a herring? What is the
diameter of the sun? 32 miles. If the navigator neglects to
apply the sun's semi-diameter to his observation at sea, he is
16 nautical miles (nearly) in calculating the position his ship
is in. A minute of arc on the sextant represents a nautical
mile, and if the semi-diameter be 16 miles, the diameter is of
course 32 miles. And as measured by the sextant, the sun's
diameter is 32 minutes of arc, that is 32 nautical miles in
diameter. If ever dispoof is attempted, it will be a literary
curiosity, well worth framing.'' [later in the same thread] I
asked how you know the distance t