Sun Trajectory Lab

This is position of the sun during the day. For our lab we took the height of an object (opposite side) and measured the length (adjacent side) of its shadow. This gave us the two sides used to find the tangent angle to correspond with a specific angles. The opposite   side is divided by the adjacent side and this yields a number that is used to find the angle of the shadow and the object from a given chart.

This is a great website to get the measurements for the Sun trajectory on the exact days. http://www.suncalc.net/#/32.8288,-83.6515,15/2013.04.05/23:12

In these pictures, we are able to see the sun’s path. The sun’s path is the position of the sun in hours of the day. This is due to the earth’s rotation.

On the specific day that I retrieved some data, I found the sunrise and sunset times. This provides me with background for my collected data.

Macon, Georgia (longitude W83.7, latitude N32.8)

Friday  

        5 April 2013          Eastern Daylight Time         

                         SUN

    

        Sunrise                    7:17 a.m.                

        Sun transit                1:37 p.m.                

        Sunset                     7:58 p.m.                

        End civil twilight         8:23 p.m.                

April 5^th, 2013: The moon looked like this:  Waning crescent: with about ¼ of the moon visible.

MY DATA: started on April 5^th, but I had to collect data from other dates because of clouds covering the sun.

7:30 AM  Object height: 51 inches. Shadow length is 550 inches. 51inches/550inches=.0927 = 5.296 degrees

2:30 PM Object height is 51 inches. Shadow length is 20.4 inches. 51inches/20.4inches=2.5 inches = 68.199 degrees

3:30 PM Object height is 51 inches. Shadow length is 48.3 inches.   51inches/48.3 inches = 46.560 degrees

7:30 PM Object height is 51 inches. Shadow length is 756 inches. 51inches /756 inches= .067 inches =3.833 degrees

Conclusion from data:

The morning measurements had very large heights in shadows. This corresponds with the shadow heights in the evening (12 hours later). The length of the shadow decreases as the hours pass. The length taken at 2:30 PM was difficult to even find the shadow because it was so short. 3:30 showed a bit less difficulty in measuring the height of shadow. Though, the height of shadow at 7:30 PM was so long that I am not sure if I was able to get the absolute measurements because it entwined and tangled amongst and between the tree trucks.

Reflections:

I am very glad to have taken data from the first hour of sunlight and the last hours of sunlight (a twelve hour duration). It showed me the direction of sun position clearly and the how the heights of shadow correlated to give me a better understanding of the sun’s effects due to its positioning, also due to the sunset and sunrise times. During the middle of the day, the shadow height decreased in inches by a lot, it was as is if the object was absorbing its shadow as the day progresses, and then released as the sun descended.  

Poem that I made up for the observations:

Wake up empty

Daylight lives

Shadow is consumed,

Engulfed, swamped,

And sucked up from the object.

Ah! But then comes afternoon

Slowly releasing

And, evening comes to allow for

A large exhale

Waits for another day after night ends.