Shadow time
At sunrise your shadow on the ground is very long—longer than you
are! At sunset your shadow is long again, but it points the other way.
And in the middle of the day, when the sun is high in the sky, your
shadow is very short—it’s just a small, dark spot around your feet.The way shadows change can help you tell the time. You can make a
shadow clock.Glue the spool to the middle of the paper plate. Then stand the pencil
in the hole in the spool, with the point up. Draw a small arrow on the
edge of the plate.Find a window, or a spot outdoors, where
Materials
• clock
• glue
• paper plate
• pencil (long)
• pencil (for marking)
• ruler
• spool
there is sunlight for a long time—all day, if possible. Put the
paper plate there. Make sure the arrow points south.Look at the time early in the morning. When the clock reaches the
nearest hour, use the ruler to draw a line down the shadow the pencil
makes on the paper plate. Write the hour next to the line you traced.
Do the same thing every hour. Check the time, draw a line down the
shadow, and write the hour next to the line. The last line you can
draw on your clock is the last hour before the sun goes down.When you have a line for each hour of sunlight, your shadow clock is
finished. You can use it to tell time on any sunny day. Put it in the
sun, making sure that the arrow points south. The shadow of the pencil
will point to the time of day.
