The Lat/Long Experiment

• Set-up:
  • The paper needs to be horizontal.
  • The gnomon (aka stick) needs to be vertical and on (or through) the paper. Mark on the paper where the gnomon is (if you want to be fancy, the gnomon does not need to be vertical, but you need to mark on the paper vertically below the point).
  • During the few hours over the middle of the day, the shadow of the point of the gnomon needs to fall on the paper.
  • You also need an accurate way to tell the time.

• The experiment:
  • For each data point, mark on the paper where the shadow falls and the exact time.
  • You should collect data reasonably frequently over the hour or two each side of noon (by the clock). It's more important to collect more data points closer to when the sun is highest in the sky (this is local noon by the sun, which is approximately noon by the clock).

• The analysis...
  • ...will be done in class on 26th Sept. But feel free to play for yourself following the guide linked on the syllabus page (or some other source).

• The target:
  • Find our latitude and longitude. Last time we taught it we were off the coast of Rhode Island. I hope we'll do better this time (and have some ideas about what went wrong last time, so think that we should).

• Bonus Points:
  • Use some techniques from the Rough Science programme: get the latitude from the North Star, build a radio and/or pendulum to tell the time, make your own insect repellent for while you're taking measurements...