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Calibration of a Horizontal Sundial

Article  in  The Physics Teacher · September 2010

DOI: 10.1119/1.3479720

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 Calibration of a Horizontal Sundial
Barbara Rovšek

Citation: The Physics Teacher 48, 397 (2010); doi: 10.1119/1.3479720

View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.3479720
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aapt/journal/tpt/48/6?ver=pdfcov
Published by the American Association of Physics Teachers

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 Calibration of a Horizontal Sundial
Barbara Rovšek, Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

T
his paper describes how a horizontal
sundial can be calibrated in a class-
room without using the nontrivial
equations of projective geometry. If one
understands how a simple equatorial sundial
works, one will also understand the procedure
of calibrating a horizontal (or “garden,” as it is
also called) sundial.
Two parts of any sundial are a gnomon, par-
allel to the Earth’s rotational axis,1 and a dial
plate, where the gnomon’s shadow is observed.
In the equatorial sundial the dial plate lies in
a dial plane, which is parallel to an equatorial
plane, and a gnomon is perpendicular to it. At
parts of the Earth that are away from the poles,
the dial plate of the equatorial sundial is tilted
with respect to the horizontal plane. In the
Northern Hemisphere the tilt angle (toward
the North Pole) is b = 90o – a, where a is the
latitude, as shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 1. Geometry of the equatorial sundial (at noon). The gnomon’s shadow is
During the day the dial plate rotates with observed in the dial plane, which is parallel to the equatorial plane. The gnomon is
the Earth around its rotational axis. To an parallel to the Earth’s rotational axis and perpendicular to the dial plane.
observer who sits on the same carousel, it ap-
pears that the dial plate is at rest and the gno-
mon’s shadow rotates on the dial plate around
the gnomon, due to the apparent rotation of
the Sun. This shadow’s rotation is uniform
with constant angular velocity, which is the
same as the angular velocity of the Earth,
360o /day = 15o/h. Successive hour lines,
which indicate the direction of the shadow at
a particular hour of the day, are separated by
an angle of 15o. In one day the length of the
gnomon’s shadow in the dial plane remains
almost the same, while it changes substan-
tially during one year. On two occasions
the Sun’s rays are parallel to the equatorial
plane—on the spring and fall equinoxes—
and the length of the shadow diverges then.
From the spring to the fall equinox the
shadow is located on the northern side of the
dial plate, and in the second part of the year Fig. 2. In the horizontal sundial the dial plane is parallel to the plane of the hori-
on the southern, if the gnomon is pushed zon. The gnomon, being parallel to the Earth’s rotational axis, is on the Northern
through the dial plate, as drawn in Fig. 1. Hemisphere tilted toward the North Pole at an angle a.
On an equatorial sundial the direction of the
shadow at the same hour of the day is almost the same every circular.2-5 The other is the tilt of the Earth’s rotational axis,
day throughout the year. Some minor deviations (up to 15 which causes a variation in the length of the day and leads
minutes) are caused by two reasons. The first is due to the fact to the appearance of an analemma. The analemma is clearly
that the Earth’s path around the Sun is elliptical rather than explained in Ref. 5. In this paper we shall not consider any of

DOI: 10.1119/1.3479720 The Physics Teacher ◆ Vol. 48, September 2010 397
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 a)

Fig. 3. Horizontal (left) and equatorial sundial. Both gnomons are

parallel to the Earth’s rotational axis.

these deviations and will be content with the limited precision

of the sundial.
While the equatorial sundial is probably the most simple to
understand, one more often sees horizontal or vertical sundi-
als in gardens or on walls or even worn as a necklace.6 The
reason is that they are easy to build. As their names suggest,
they have a horizontal or vertical dial plate instead of a dial
plate parallel to the equatorial plane. The gnomon remains
parallel to the Earth’s rotational axis, which makes it tilted
with respect to the dial plate, as shown in Fig. 2, for the hori-
zontal sundial. A gnomon’s tilt angle equals the latitude a at
the location where the sundial stands.
On the horizontal dial plate, the gnomon’s shadow rotates, b)
but not in a trivial manner. During the day the length of the
shadow changes, and even more important (and disturbing),
the angular velocity of the shadow’s rotation changes as well.
The equations of projective geometry can be applied2-8 to
obtain a relation between the angles of the hour lines qe on the
equatorial sundial and qh on the horizontal sundial:

qh = tan-1 [sin a tan qe ]. (1)

For the noon line qh = qe = 0, and for other hour lines qe

and qh indicate the angles between the hour line and the
noon line on the equatorial and horizontal sundial, respec-
tively. Equation (1) is nevertheless nontrivial and probably
not easy to understand at the introductory level. Here we
suggest a much simpler projecting procedure for drawing the
dial for the horizontal sundial.
Equatorial and horizontal sundials are closely related. We c)
can use the regular dial of the equatorial sundial to calibrate
the more complicated dial of the horizontal sundial. The only Fig. 4. (a) The dial of the equatorial sundial with evenly distributed
difference between these two is the orientation of the dial hour marks. (b) Side view of the horizontal and equatorial dial
plate. In Fig. 3 both sundials are shown for comparison. plates. (c) If the latitude is a, the angle between the dial plates,
If we put both dial plates under the same gnomon, we used in designing the supporting triangles, is b = 90° – a.

398 The Physics Teacher ◆ Vol. 48, September 2010

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 a) b)

Fig. 5. (a) A projective tool. (b) Hour lines on the bottom, horizontal dial plate.

Table I. Hour-line angles in equatorial and horizontal sundials.

realize that at any instant one shadow of the gnomon may
be viewed as a projection of the other. We can apply this rule hour line equatorial horizontal horizontal measured
and make the dial of the horizontal (or vertical as well, with qe[°] for latitude for latitude for latitude
minor modifications) sundial in a classroom. Construction a = 45°N a = 44°N a = 45°N
is especially simple if one lives, as we do, close to 45o latitude qh[°] qh[°] qh[°]
(Ljubljana’s latitude is 44oN, which is close enough). We take noon 0 0 0 0
two sheets of hard cardboard and draw a half circle with a 13 15 10.7 10.5 10.5
compass on one of them near its margin, as shown in Fig. 4(a).
14 30 22.2 21.8 21.5
The circle’s diameter is parallel to the margin. The half circle
is divided into equal sectors of 15o, each corresponding to 15 45 35.3 34.8 35
one hour’s rotation of the Earth (one hour rotation of the gno- 16 60 50.8 50.3 51
mon’s shadow on the equatorial sundial). The mark for noon 17 75 69.2 68.9 68
is exactly below the center of the half circle. We make a small 18 90 90 90 89
hole at each hour mark. Then we take two plastic right-angled
isosceles triangles and use them as a support and linkage be-
tween the two sheets [dial plates, see Fig. 4(b)]. If one lives parison they are written in Table I for the latitudes 44oN and
away from the 45o parallel of latitude (as most of us do), one 45oN. With the limited precision of our method, it is not pos-
should construct special supporting triangles with suitable sible to differentiate between both latitudes.
angles, as shown in Fig. 4(c). The final check can now be done. We have to go outside,
We push a stick of proper length through a hole in the find a suitable location in the Sun, determine the north-south
center of the half circle and fix it at the bottom sheet, so the direction, and place the appropriately oriented dial plate
stick (gnomon) is perpendicular to the tilted shadow screen, with drawn hour lines on a horizontal surface. The noon line
as shown in Figs. 4(b) and (c). The point where the gnomon points directly to the north, the 6:00 hour line points toward
touches the bottom sheet is the central point of the dial of the west, and the 18:00 hour line points toward east. We push the
horizontal sundial. Then we use another thin, straight, and gnomon through the central point of the dial and tilt it prop-
sufficiently long stick as a projecting tool. We push one end erly toward the North Pole. The horizontal sundial is now
through each hour-mark hole to the bottom sheet, while the ready to use.
other part of the stick passes closely by the gnomon’s end, as With a reasonably simple practical procedure, we have suc-
shown in Fig. 5(a). We put a label where the projecting stick ceeded in plotting the hour lines on the dial of the horizontal
touches the bottom sheet. Finally we draw the hour lines, sundial, without using Eq. (1). We find this method to be very
which connect all the labels with the central point on the bot- suitable for use with students at the introductory level.
tom sheet, as shown in Fig. 5(b), and obtain in this way the
dial of the horizontal sundial. References
With a protractor we can measure the angles of the drawn 1. A gnomon is usually oriented parallel to the Earth’s rotational
hour lines and find an excellent agreement between the axis, but can also be oriented in a different way. For example,
measured angles and those calculated from Eq. (1). For com- the Greek astronomer Eratosthenes, who was the first to calcu-

The Physics Teacher ◆ Vol. 48, September 2010 399

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 late the circumference of Earth from his measurements, used a
vertical gnomon (perpendicular to the horizontal plane).
2. Malcolm M. Thomson, “Sundials,” Phys. Teach. 10, 117–121
(March 1972).
3. pass.maths.org.uk/issue11/features/sundials/index.html.
4. C. J. Budd and C. J. Sangwin, Mathematics Galore! (Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 2001).
5. www.analemma.com.
6. Michelle B. Larson, “Constructing a portable sundial,” Phys.
Teach. 37, 113–114 (Feb. 1999).
7. home.netcom.com/~abraxas2/horz.htm.
8. www.math.nus.edu.sg/aslaksen/projects/sundials/diff_
horizontal.html.
Barbara Rovšek is a teaching assistant of physics at Faculty of
Education, University of Ljubljana.
Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia; Barbara.
Rovsek@pef.uni-lj.si

The OSP Collection in ComPADRE contains three models that can be used in conjunction with the preceding
paper by Barbara Rovšek (see “Guest Editorial,” on p. 362). The models show how gnomon shadows are produced and
how these shadows change throughout the day and throughout the year.

1) The “Noon Shadow” model shows the geometry of the shadow cast by a gnomon at noon. Users can change the ori-
entation of the gnomon as well as its latitude. The height of the gnomon and its shadow length are displayed in Earth
radius units.
www.compadre.org/osp/items/detail.cfm?ID=9980
2) The “Eratosthenes” model displays the shadows cast by two gnomons at different locations on Earth. This model
shows how Eratosthenes determines the circumference of the Earth.
www.compadre.org/osp/items/detail.cfm?ID=9756
3) The “Gnomon” model shows how the gnomon shadow changes throughout the day. The simulation shows the ob-
server’s horizon plane on the spherical Earth, as well as the ecliptic and the apparent path of the Sun. The Earth view
can be set to let Earth rotate or remain fixed.
www.compadre.org/osp/items/detail.cfm?ID=9378

These supplemental simulations for the article by Barbara Rovšek have been approved by the author and the
TPT editor.
—Wolfgang Christian

400 The Physics Teacher ◆ Vol. 48, September 2010

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