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Hi-
You can take this demo one step further by thoughtful positioning
of your light source, ball, and observer. The Greeks measured the
distance to the sun by noting when the moon was at exactly 1/2 lit, and
measuring the angle between the lines of sight to the sun and moon. They
knew the lunar distance from parallax (I wouldn't call that
"triangulation" I don't think), in units of the earth's radius.
Their number for the solar distance was not too good, as I recall,
because the relevant angle is so close to pi/2.
Regards,
Jack