THE SUNDIAL

Margo McCullough
























The Sundial

How are sundials used? They are basically a metal or any device that can tell
time, just by facing the sun. There are many different types of sundials; horizontal dials,
vertical dials, equatorial dials, polar dials, analemmatic dials, reflected ceiling dials, and
portable dials. The topic that interests me the most is the analemamatic dial. Sundials
measure the time from daily sundial. Many people have always wondered how it worked
and how it was used. Many theories have been created about the sundials and how they
were first started. The many types of sundials came about when a man worked on
creating a way to find the accurate time. Many Egyptians first found time by using a T-
shaped tool also known as the "time stick." The stick was faced east in the morning, so
the shadow of the bar would come across the stick and come to the bar until noon. Then,
the stick was turned west in the afternoon. About the time of 1500 BC a smaller Egyptian
time peace was created, the sundial, which was a smaller size of the obelisk (The first,
bigger sundial.) Like watches that are modern today, the Egyptians had portable versions
of sundials, which was very important to the Egyptian people. In the drastic time of the
middle ages, peasants in northern Europe, used sundials that were carved into the bottom
of their wooden clogs. The peasants would take off the shoe and stand it up directly to the
sun to tell time. The heel cast on the dial shows the hour. How is the circle and sun
measured at daily time in the sundial?
Sundials come in many different sizes, but are always a circle. The way that the
analemmatics sundial works, is when a person stands on the sundial their shadow is
reflected on the Roman numeral that tells what time of day it is. This type of sundial is
not usually very common. The reasoning for that is because the gnomon (the point) is
vertical. Points falling on the circumference of an eclipse are how to find out the hours.
Depending on the time of year, the gnomon has to be moved so the shadow will fall on
the correct point. In this case of a sundial, the person has to act as the gnomon because
they stand on the platform and their body shadow is casted on the correct point of time.
Gnomons are usually sharp pointy sticks that cast there own shadow, but when using an
analemmatic sundial the person just needs to stand up at the correct position. The position
the person needs to stand in is dependent on which month of the year it is, marked out
along the north-south axis that crosses the mid-point between the foci of the certain
ellipse. The gnomon has to be moved depending on the time of year, so that the shadow
falls on the correct point (Types of Sundials.) The measure of the sundial needs to be
checked with a protractor to confirm that the hour lines have been laid out correctly. A
common method for checking the angle of the gnomon is to measure the angle with a
protractor, and then crosscheck your measurement to ensure that the hour lines have been
laid out correctly. (Types of Sundials.) When someone stands on a sundial they need to
make sure they face north of the sundial. Also the person needs to stand on the middle
line to make sure their timing is not off. Analemmatic dials are particularly suitable for
sundials laid out on lawns, where a person can act as a gnomon; the position where the
person should stand at any given month of the year is marked out along the north-south
axis, which crosses the mid-point between the foci of the ellipse. (Types of Sundials.)
The sundial very greatly relates to geometry. The sundial has the base of a circle
for portable and other types of sundials. The sundial has to be at a certain angle
depending on the time of year. On equatorial dials, the rod is parallel to the earths axis
and passes through the center of the rings. The sundial can consist of two parts. One of
the sides of the Dialface, has a flat surface that has lines and labels of the hours of time
on it. The Gnomon is the triangular shape on the dial that raises perpendicular above the
dial face and it has a slanted edge equal in degrees to the local latitude. As the sun shines,
the gnomon creates a shadow on the dialface. The hour lines determined the time to read
at the point indicated by the shadow created by the gnomon. A sundial consists of two
parts. The Dialface is a flat surface on which are drawn the lines that label the hours of
time. Also, the analemattic can be horizontal. The gnomon is fifteen degrees for every
hour, seven and 5 tenths degrees for every thirty minutes, three and 75 hundredths for
every 15 minutes, and the gnomon is usually used at a 90 angle. The gnomon can be
used very geometrically.
This topic interests me a lot. Sundials are used in many different ways and when
my sister was doing her project on sundials, it gave me inspiration. This topic has always
sparked to me and made me want to learn more about it. The sundial has a lot of different
stories about the history and there were many different ancient people who used it. All of
my questions that I have wondered and thought about have been answered with my
research and knowledge. The sundial has a certain feature about it that makes me very
interested and leads me into more research. My main focus is on the analemmatic sundial
which a person stands on because it is very cool that if someone stands in the middle of
the circle there shadow will cast on the time of day. I have seen many sundials; there is a
device similar to the sundial at the California Academy of Science. That is what first
made me wonder about the sundial and how it works.
In conclusion, the sundial has lots of history, shapes, sizes, and more. The
Egyptians in the middle ages were the first users of the sundial and were the inventers.
The gnomon is the point of the sundial and is the thing that casts the shadow on the
correct roman numeral of time. The sundial relates to geometry because it consists of
many shapes and angles. This topic has always interested me and will always interest me
more and lead me to more research. My research question is How is the circle and sun
measured at daily time in the sundial? Well, the sun is measured by the shadow casted
from the gnomon or the human and has to be moved in order to work in certain times of
the year. Through all my research I have found that this is a very good topic and relates to
geometry.




BIBLIOGRAPHY

"Learn About Sundials." Learn About Sundials. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Mar. 2014.
"Sundials on the Internet." Sundials on the Internet. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar.
2014.
"Types of Sundials." Sundials on the Internet -. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2014.
"The Sundial Primer." The Sundial Primer - Foster-Lambert Sundial. N.p., n.d.
Web. 24

"ERATOSTHENES'S MEASUREMENT." N.p., n.d. Web.