BUILD A SUNDIAL

Sundials can be defined as instruments to measure time, cspecifically daytime. Sundials consist of two parts. The first one is a surface with carved lines that represent the hours, The second part is also fixed and consists of a rod, the ribbon of a flat surface or a small hole, and all of them are set on a different plane of that of the hours. This element is called gnomon or estyle.

Template and finished Sundial

You can download the template PDF from the following link:
DOWNLOAD PDF

The movement of the Sun casts a shadow or mobile ray of sun that will indicate the local solar time.

In order to get the accurate solar time on the sundial we need to know what the latitude is for our current location. We can find it out by lookig at a map or using this small table where you can find a list of locations with their corresponding latitudes.

Amsterdam	52	Lisbon	39
Barcelona	41	Leon	42
Bilbao	44	London	51
Berlin	52	Marseille	43
Braganza	42	Madrid	40
Bourdeaux	45	Naples	41
Cadiz	36	Paris	49
San Sebastián	44	Rome	42
Dresden	51	Seville	36
Dublin	52	Tokio	36
Franfürt	50	Valencia	40
Genoa	44	Washinton	38
Hanover	52	Zurich	47

We encourage you to make this sundial, which is called polar sundial because its gnomon is paralell to the Earth's axis and it is directed towards Polaris.

One of the characteristics of the polar sundial is that it works on any place of the world, provided that the surface angle coincides with the local latitude and that it is correctly directed southwards, and also the line North-South meets the pin of a compass.

You will find out how easy it is to make a sundial and this way you will have a very useful instrument to measure time.

ASSEMBLY INSTRUCTIONS

Follow these steps to obtain a sundial made of paper:

- Print preferably onto a piece of card stock or photo paper.

- Draw a line line from vertex A to the corresponding local degree of latitude or paralell of your current location where you want to check the sundial.

- Cut out the sundial and gnomon templates.

- Make two cuts on the NS dashed red line.

- Fold the gnomon along the dotted line and place it inside the slits on the NS line by folding the tabs. You must make sure the right-angle is at the bottom of the sundial template.

- Fold the two latitude lines and the two sides that go from R to A.

- Now you have your sundial on the right angle, you only have it to set it southwards to know the solar time.

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