Meppel Nu

· 27 Feb 2020

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A Sundial, What's It For You?

#ZONNEWIJZER 🤓 A sundial is an instrument to indicate time with the help of the sun, usually in the form of a plane or disc on which time falls to be read at the place of the shadow that a marker (the style) casts on it. The oldest known sundial dates from around 1500 BC and was found in Egypt. The earth rotates around its axis. As a result, the shadow of an object constantly changes its direction. If the shadow points north, it's exactly noon. The sun then stands in the south and in its highest position that day, exactly above the meridian. It's 12 hours in local solar time. From there, one can make a distribution and make timetable lines on which the shadow indicates the hour.
The sundial on the picture is in the Wilhelminapark in Meppel.