Make a Sundial
Take your sundial outside and point the gnomon of your dial due north. The resulting shadow should fall along the appropriate hour
line.
Ok, so here’s a fun project. Making the most ancient of time telling devices is straightforward and only requires a few items as well as a bit of your time. So, let’s get started.
First, you need a base. You can make one from wood or heavy cardboard for the base of your sundial. Find the center and mark it with a pen or pencil.
Second, you will need a pointer, or gnomon, which is the hand that will cast the shadow on your sundial. Any object that can stand straight up, like a pencil, pen or nail can work equally well for this application. Choose one and find it.
Third, you will need to locate your spot on Earth. No, it’s not all that scientific, but it would help if you had a GPS, since that would make quick work out of this search. Specifically, you will need to find out your latitude. If you don’t have a GPS, you can use internet sites that take your city and calculate your latitude for you.
Fourth, you will need to plant that gnomon into the place. That’s right, time to erect that sucker, so pun intended. Mount the gnomon into the center of the disk. Here’s the slight complicated bit: the angle of the gnomon relative to the surface of the base should equal your latitude angle. Got that? Use a protractor, yes that half-circle thingie you used in school, to ensure that the gnomon is at the correct angle relative to the base.
For your fifth step, you will need to use an internet site that will allow you to provide your latitude information and in turn receive a horizontal sundial face diagram that is specific to your latitude. Print that, and paste it onto your base.
Step Six: Line up everything with the radiating vertical lines. The center point of the base will be where the horizontal and vertical lines meet.
Seven: Use a marker to copy the lines from the diagram onto the disk base. The lines should start from the center of the disk and head outward. Label the lines to indicate hours. The diagram should serve as a decent guide for this.
Last step. Woohoo, we are almost there. Take your sundial outside when you have sunlight (surprising how some people work on this project in the afternoon and take the thing out just as dusk settles in) and orient the gnomon of your dial due north. And, drum roll please, the shadow that appears should mark the appropriate hour line. And there you have it. Your very own sundial.
