Equatorial Sundial~Roosevelt Park
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MNSearchers
N 48° 14.267 W 101° 16.620
14U E 330933 N 5345235
Presented by the Railroad Museum of Minot, the Minot Park District and the Minot Central Labor Temple.
Waymark Code: WMPMV
Location: North Dakota, United States
Date Posted: 09/05/2006
Views: 26
This is an equatorial Sundial at Roosevelt Park in Minot ND.
An equatorial sundial consists of a dial plate, and a gnomon (or style) that is perpendicular to the dial plate. The dial plate has an upper dial face and a lower dial face, both of which are marked off in hours (every hour is exactly 15 degrees wide). The gnomon is a pole (or rod) that passes through the center of the dial plate, extending above the upper face of the dial plate, and extending below the lower dial face. The shadow of the gnomon (or style), cast among the hour lines on one of the two dial faces, shows the time.
An equatorial sundial is actually a reduced model of the Earth, similar to a globe with its upper and lower halves removed: the dial plate represents the plane of the Earth's Equator; the gnomon represents the Earth's axis of rotation. The upper dial face represents the Northern Hemisphere; the lower dial face represents the Southern Hemisphere.