Solar Trajectory
Eric Yoggy
2/11/14
Objective: To
determine the location of the sun in the sky by measuring a fixed object. In
this case, I used a light pole and measured the shadow it cast. Throughout the
day I recorded the changes in the shadow.
Study Site: We
found a light pole on College Street and used its shadow for measurement.
Materials: 1.
Notebook
2. Pen
3. Tape
measure
4. Light
pole
5.
Compass application on the iPhone
6.
Suncalc.net
7. Lab
Partner: Cole Mitchell and Sarah Brown
Methods: 1.
We found a light pole
2. We
measured the height of the light pole
3. We
measured the shadow of the light pole six times on January 25.
4. We used
the compass application on my iPhone to measure the direction the sun was
shining
5. We
recorded the information and used tangent to find the angle of the sun at each
point during the day.
Calculations: The
pole height and shadow length are measured in inches. I used the tangent
function, which is the length of the side opposite of the hypotenuse divided by
the length of the side adjacent to the hypotenuse multiplied times tangent.
|
TIME
|
POLE HEIGHT
|
SHADOW LENGTH
|
DIRECTION (DEGREES)
|
SUN ANGLE (DEGREES)
|
|
9:45
|
210
|
274
|
217
|
37.46
|
|
10:45
|
210
|
204
|
196
|
45.83
|
|
11:45
|
210
|
157
|
192
|
53.21
|
|
12:47
|
210
|
140
|
116
|
56.3
|
|
1:42
|
210
|
158
|
118
|
53.04
|
|
4:40
|
210
|
383
|
68
|
28.73
|
Conclusion: At
12:47 pm, the sun was close to directly over our heads. I put our measurements
into suncalc.net, which showed me that the sun was never directly over our
heads because of the season we are in and the tilt of the Earth. Logically
thinking as well, if the sun were to be directly over the pole, there would be
no shadow.
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