Lesson 3.1 Make-up Lab

TRACKING SHADOWS

Use this internet cite to help answer the questions below.

http://hea-www.harvard.edu/ECT/the_book/Chap1/Chapter1.html

http://www.seed.slb.com/en/scictr/lab/analemma/index.htm

1. Place a ruler or yardstick in the ground in your backyard. Observe the stick four times a day and sketch the shadow and record the times shown at each of those times of day.

2. Explain where the Sun is during each of those times of day that you sketched the shadows made from the ruler or yardstick.

3. Research on the internet where the Sun is during a typical winter day and sketch that shadow and where the Sun is during a typical summer day (at the same time) and sketch where the shadow is then.

4. Draw the apparent motion of the Sun across the Earth’s sky.

5. Create a working definition for the term ‘rotation’.

6. Define ‘solar noon’.

7. Go to this site http://www.gtchild.co.uk/content/ Observe the interactive site for shadows 1 and shadows 2 and Earth Orbiting the Sun. Sketch what you see.

8. Based on your observations at this site answer the following questions:

a. At what time of day did the shortest shadow occur?

b. At what time of day did the longest shadow occur?

c. If solar noon were the lowest point on your curve of the Sun’s movement, how would you define ‘solar noon’?

d. How could you use a graph to predict the length and location of a shadow for a particular time?