Telus Sundial - Calgary, Alberta - Outdoor Interactive Science Displays on Waymarking.com

Located on the southeast side of the Telus Building you will find this analemmatic sundial that requires the user to act as the gnomon. By standing on the month, the accuracy is very good.

There are two plaques that describe what to do and the process:

"We invite you to follow in the footsteps of ancient man and become the gnomon of this sundial by standing on the oval plaque bearing the date closest to the present date. Your own shadow should now indicate the time of day to within a few minutes. The larger the numerals are in “Mountain Standard Time for winter use, while the smaller numerals apply during the summer. In practice the slightly irregular motions of the earth around the sun lead to inaccuracy in simple sundials amounting to more than fifteen minutes at certain times of the year."

"The sun is an essential source of energy for all living things on the earth. Early civilizations feared and worshipped this brilliant celestial object as it traversed their skies. They also learned to sue this regular motion to record the passage of time. A simple form of sundial similar to that used by early Greek astronomers in which the position of the shadow of a vertical pole or gnomon was used to indicate the time of day is depicted here."

Scientific Principle(s) being demonstrated: By coming back every month at the same time of day the user can demonstrate the principles of a sundial and that the earth's rotation around the sun and its impact on the declination of the earth requires the user to move around the sundial to correctly indicate the time. Briefly explain if the experiment was effective for you. Could it have been better?: This sundial works well. Depending how close you are to mid-month will improve the accuracy of the time measurement. When is the apparatus/experiment available to the public: As a sundial it can be used during daylight hours. With its downtown location and the other buildings that surround it the sundial works best in the first half of the day.

Visit Instructions:
To help give a different perspective and to improve the Waymark for future visitors please tell us about your visit and upload a favorite photograph(s) you took of the Waymark. What was your “Wow” moment?

Recent Visits/Logs:

There are no logs for this waymark yet.