To anyone who would like to help! My name is Andy Wolf and I'm
from Mansfield, OH. I go to Crestview High School and am performing a
project in my class, and I need your help. My
experiment is to determine the earths circumference. What I need
people to do is perform the following experiment and send back your results.
First, you must find your Precise Local Time of Your Area, since time
varies from one town to another even if they are situated in the same
time zone. Check with your local radio station, local phone
company, Internet provider, or an astromomy center to find out
your exact local time. You need to know this because this is when you
need to measure the sun's shadow. You measure the sun's shadow at
precisely your Local Time by taking a meterstick and standing it
perfectly upright. You can make sure the pole is upright with the aid of
a plumb line. Adjust the meterstick until the string hangs completely
parallel to it. After this, you will need to perform this for each day
of one week and then send your results. Other information needed is your
longitude and latitude in degrees and in minutes. Date and time of
measurement and length of shadow created in meters-
Ex: Jan23, 12:00 pm, 42.8342N 82.73W, Mansfield, Ohio, USA, .86m
Here's a chart to help:
Day/Time Lat. Long. (city, state, country) shadow length
If you cannot find when your local noon is, then send back your latitude
and longitude plus your GMT, and I can find it for you. Once all data is
gathered, please E-mail us the results using: dsouder@ashland.edu
I thank you immensely for your enthusiasm and warm-hearted responses.