Making a sundial?

Question

I want to make one. Or has anyone bought one? If so where? How much?

My son saw one in his lesson and now wants one?

Answer 1

Here's a link with some pretty interesting lesson plans based around sundials - it looks like some of them include instructions for how to make one.  It seems to have all ages, not sure how old your son is.  Good luck!

http://www.juliantrubin.com/encyclopedia...

Answer 2

The simplest way is a circle of wood or paper with a stick in the middle.

You put it out side where it won't face the rain but will see the sun and then you can mark it with numbers using your real clock and drawing a line from the outer edge to the stick

The shadow will be longer in Winter than in Summer.  So get a big stick.  Maybe something a foot tall.

You know a DOWL.  You can go to a store like Home Depot and get a 1" stick that is a foot or so tall (they'll cut it for you) and glue it to a base.

The base doesn't NEED to be circular  But the STICK has to be at an exact RIGHT ANGLE, no listing.  It must be perfectly square to the plane of the base.

Answer 3

Step One:  Use a disk made from wood or heavy cardboard for the base of your sundial. Mark its center with a pen or pencil.

2:  Choose an item for the gnomon, or hand, of your sundial. This is the part of the sundial that casts a shadow onto the dial. A pencil, pen or nail (for a wood disk) can each work well.

3:  Determine your latitude. This number can be found on either a map or on one of many Internet sites that will calculate your latitude for you.

4:  Insert the end of the gnomon into the disk at its center. The angle of the gnomon relative to the face of the disk should equal your latitude angle. Use a protractor to verify that the gnomon is at the correct angle to the disk.

5:  Find an Internet site that will allow you to input your latitude information and will then produce a horizontal sundial face diagram that is specific to your latitude (try physics.uwyo.edu/~rberring/sundial.html)

6Step SixPrint out the dial face diagram. The diagram will consist of a horizontal line with lines radiating upward from its center.

7:  Place your disk onto the diagram so that the gnomon lines up with the radiating vertical line. The center point of the disk should rest where the horizontal and vertical lines meet.

8:  Use a felt-tip pen to transfer the lines from the diagram onto the disk. The lines should radiate from the center of the disk outward. Label the lines on your disk to indicate the hour that each represents. Use the diagram as a guide.

9:  Take your sundial outside and point the gnomon of your dial due north. The resulting shadow should fall along the appropriate hour line.

Tips & Warnings

Use a gnomon whose length is approximately ½ to ¾ the diameter of the disk.

Use these instructions for any location in the Northern Hemisphere.

Find true north (which differs from magnetic north) by placing a long stick straight into the ground at true midday. The shadow cast at exactly this time will point in the direction of true north. Determine true midday by first converting the sunrise and sunset times into military time (i.e., 6 PM = 1800). Add these two times together and divide by 2 to get the true midday time.

Find the sunrise and sunset times in your local newspaper.

Answer 4

You will get them in a Garden Centre or even in an Department Store. They are either made out of Stone, Limestone or Granite with a Brass Sundial, or all Metal usually in Black. You can sometimes get them in Street Markets at Weekends . If you are in UK or Ireland they are not very dear ,they range in Price from €60- 300 Euro or £50- 200 Pounds or you can go even dearer if you wish. When you get them you have to set them to tell the time thats the tricky bit.