Here is a physics problem supplied to us by our gracious teacher, see if you can do it.

Question

The problem:

You have a meterstick and a stop watch, find the radius of the earth..

I'm in first year physics so it was hard for me, but other veterans may be able to do it..

Answer 1

It is difficult.  I'd do a version of that experiment the ancient Greeks did in Egypt, where they simultaneously measured the angle of the Sun from the zenith at two locations and said well, 111 km corresponds to an angle of 1 degree so 360 degrees is 39960 km and divide by 2 pi to get the radius (well, I can't remember the distance or the units but you get the idea).  The two locations need to be on the same line in the direction of sunset .  Measure the distance with the metre rule; make it about 2 km.  Get your friend to signal when the Sun disappears below the horizon and start your stopwatch.  Stop it when the Sun disappears about 4 seconds later. If 4 seconds corresponds to 2 km, then 23 hours 56 mins. corresponds to the Earth's circumference.  

Answer 2

I don't know if this will help.  It's a little explanation of what zee_prime referred to.

http://outreach.as.utexas.edu/marykay/as...

Are you really sure your teacher is gracious?....lol

good luck