Make A Human Sundial
The human sundial in our garden never fails to fascinate children and adults alike. To use it a person stands on the appropriate month marked on the ground and their shadow is cast on a numbered marker that tells the time. A human sundial or analemmatic sundial differs from a common sundial in that the gnomon, which casts the shadow, is not angled. The gnomon (a person) in a human sundial is vertical and stands on a marker on the ground that states the month. Our sundial is set for daylight savings time (March – November) but these sundial installations can be designed for non-daylight savings time or to work year-round by including two sets of months to stand on. Since the science center that we purchased design instructions stopped selling sundial plans we have researched other options for acquiring plans. The following provides a range of options for you to create a sundial:
solarschoolhouse.org has a free Human Sundial Calculator that provides directions along with a video and other helpful steps to create a human sundial.
www.sunclocks.com offers plans for about $60 and also has instructions on how to make your own. They also have some great photos of human sundials and lots more information on using and installing human sundials.
Sundials.org shares directions on how to make a human sundial (AKA analemmatic sundial)
GREAT FOR THOSE WITH HIGHER LEVEL MATH SKILLS:
www.mysundial.ca/sdu/sdu_easy_make_sundials.html Free downloads for various types of sundial designs including an analemmatic model that you could scale up to make a human sundial.
www.mysundial.ca/sdu/sdu_horizontal_analemmatic_sundial.html An instruction kit you download and make a sundial. Could be scaled up to make a human sundial.
More directions to make a human sundial which seems to involve a bit more complex math than just purchasing a plan. Could be good for high school math students.
Analemmatic sundials: How to build one and why they work. This page is similar to the one above which involves more complex math to create your own plan.