Egghead scientists want you to believe that the sun is 93 million miles away, but simple trigonometry proves that it is much closer.

On the equinox at solar noon, the sun is directly over the equator at a spot due south from me. That means that the equator, the sun, and I form a right triangle, so if I know my distance to the equator and if I can measure the angle of the sun, then I can calculate the distance to the sun.

So I borrowed a sextant on the equinox and measured the angle of the sun at solar noon, and it came out as 53.6°, which I would expect since I am at 36.4° latitude. Valle Hermosa, Ecuador is roughly 2517.9 miles due south from me. So, if I plug in the values into this simple trigonometric formula and solve for the distance to the sun, I get the following:

tan(T) = Opposite / Adjacent
tan(53.6) = Opposite / 2517.9 miles
1.356 = Opposite / 2517.9 miles
Opposite ˜ 3414.3 miles

So, the sun is a mere 3414.3 miles overhead.