{"id":1495,"date":"2021-06-16T01:45:57","date_gmt":"2021-06-16T08:45:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/simivalleydaycamp.com\/?p=1495"},"modified":"2025-10-06T13:21:26","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T20:21:26","slug":"sundial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/simivalleydaycamp.com\/index.php\/2021\/06\/16\/sundial\/","title":{"rendered":"Sundial"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"instructions\" class=\"instructions\">\n<p>Have you ever stopped to think about how the sun moves through the sky during the day?\u00a0 It rises in the east, moves slowly higher and higher in the sky, and then slowly sinks in the west.\u00a0 But really, YOU are the one moving, not the sun!<\/p>\n<p>The Earth rotates once each day and that is what makes it look like the sun is moving.\u00a0 You can try it yourself:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Stand in the middle of a room.\u00a0 You are going to pretend to be the Earth.\u00a0 Now pick something in the room to be the sun and stand facing your &#8220;sun&#8221;.\u00a0 This is what it&#8217;s like at noon, when the Sun is high up overhead.<\/li>\n<li>Now slowly turn your whole body, including your head, until you can just barely see your &#8220;sun&#8221; out of the corner of your eye.\u00a0 That&#8217;s what it&#8217;s like at sunset.\u00a0 The part of the Earth that you are standing on is getting ready to turn away from the sun.<\/li>\n<li>Now keep turning until you can just barely see your &#8220;sun&#8221; out of the corner of your other eye.\u00a0 It&#8217;s sunrise!\u00a0 The part of the Earth you are standing on is getting ready to turn back towards the sun.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Our Earth turns around and around, just like that, every day. Even though you were the one moving, it looked like everything else in the room shifted places. For thousands of years, people have used this motion to help keep track of time and you are going to make a sundial so you can do the same.<\/p>\n<p>You will need:<br \/>\nA straw<br \/>\nA landscape staple<br \/>\nA piece of chalk<br \/>\nA paper plate<br \/>\nA marker or pen<br \/>\nTape<br \/>\nA good pair of scissors<br \/>\nA smartphone or compass (Optional)<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Using the landscape staple, carefully poke two holes along the rim of the plate.\u00a0 Be very careful!\u00a0 As the staple pushes through the plate, don&#8217;t let it stab your hand.<br \/>\nYou can see the holes in this picture:<br \/>\n<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1498 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/simivalleydaycamp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/sun1.jpg?resize=300%2C241&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"A paper plate with two holes, about an inch and a half apart, near the edge of the plate.\" width=\"300\" height=\"241\" \/><\/li>\n<li>Using your scissors, carefully poke a hole in the middle of the plate.<\/li>\n<li>Insert one end of the straw into the hole.\u00a0 Use your tape to keep the straw as straight up and down as you can make it.<\/li>\n<li>Optional: If you line up your plate with a compass, you can move your plate to a different spot if you need to and the sundial will still work.<br \/>\nHere&#8217;s how:<br \/>\nWrite an &#8220;S&#8221; on one edge of the plate.<br \/>\nUsing a compass or a compass app, figure out which way is South.<br \/>\nPlace your plate on the ground with the &#8220;S&#8221; lined up with the &#8220;S&#8221; on the compass.<\/li>\n<li>Put your landscape staple through the holes and into the ground to keep your plate from blowing away in a breeze.<\/li>\n<li>At the top of an hour (10:00, 2:00, 5:00, etc.) use your sharpie to color in the shadow made by your straw and write the hour next to the shadow.\u00a0 Keep doing this, each hour until sunset.\u00a0 You can fill in the morning hours tomorrow, too!<\/li>\n<li>Once your sundial is complete, you can tell which hour you are in by seeing where the shadow falls.<br \/>\n<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1500 size-medium aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/simivalleydaycamp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/sun2.jpg?resize=300%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/simivalleydaycamp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/sun2.jpg?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/simivalleydaycamp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/sun2.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/simivalleydaycamp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/sun2.jpg?w=400&amp;ssl=1 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>So what is the chalk for?<\/p>\n<p>Shadows grow and shrink all through the day.\u00a0 Using your chalk and something like a lamp post, a tree, or even yourself, you can make a huge sundial on the sidewalk!\u00a0 Trace the shadow you picked, write the current time next to it, and come back in an hour to see how the shadow has changed.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1503 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/simivalleydaycamp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/shadow.jpg?resize=300%2C200&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever stopped to think about how the sun moves through the sky during the day?\u00a0 It rises in the east, moves slowly higher and higher in the sky, and then slowly sinks in the west.\u00a0 But really, YOU are the one moving, not the sun! The Earth rotates once each day and that &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/simivalleydaycamp.com\/index.php\/2021\/06\/16\/sundial\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Sundial<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-13"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/simivalleydaycamp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/sun.jpg?fit=450%2C253&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s9Cltt-sundial","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/simivalleydaycamp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/simivalleydaycamp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/simivalleydaycamp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simivalleydaycamp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simivalleydaycamp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1495"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/simivalleydaycamp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3064,"href":"https:\/\/simivalleydaycamp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1495\/revisions\/3064"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simivalleydaycamp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/simivalleydaycamp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simivalleydaycamp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simivalleydaycamp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}