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TwitterWhat could be more boring than walking up in the morning by listening the alarm clock on the table beside the bed? Time does not understand any fun and sometimes we just want to disappear the clock from our everyday life.
Ever wondered how to monitor the time when all the clocks in the world is no more? Long ago our ancestors were faced with the problem. Watch, were, as we know it today had not yet invented.
It is unknown to us how human first measure the time. The difference between the dark of night and light was probably the first division of the former recognition. They also noticed that the sun rises above the eastern horizon and climbed under the western horizon, to bring the dark world.
People observe and think of the shadow of trees, rock, and even own body for a long time in the early morning hours and were becoming shorter and shorter until it disappears when the sun was higher in the middle of the day. They also found that the shadow was still lying on the other side of the tree at dusk.
The length of shadow gives a approximate idea about how much passed in a day. Hours were probably from someone who put a stick in the ground, and made signs are visible on the ground, invented in the shadow of the rod that represents hour. This shadow of the stick is the oldest form of sundial.
People then judge the length of day from the position of the shadow of a rod. The technical term for the gnomon shadow stick translated from Greek and means one who knows the time.
Egyptians built obelisks; a sort of stone towers. Everyone can say, in time to see the shadow of the obelisk. Cleopatra's Needle is also a known synonym of Egyptian Obelisks.
As the Earth rotates, we see the movement of the sun across the sky. The sun casts a shadow on the right of the objects in the northern hemisphere. When the sun rose, and at the same time and place on the horizon every day, it would be a shadow clock to adhere to accuracy. But the earth still turns like a top. It revolves around an imaginary line called its axis. Line between the center of the Earth North Pole to the South Pole. Earth's axis is always tilted in the same angle.
Earth makes a full circle or turn around it`s axis in every 24 hours.. This rotation on its axis is from west to east which eventually causes day and night. Since the Earth rotates, the night side is moving towards the sun, and the day moves towards the dark side.
The North Pole is tilted toward the sun for six months and gets away from the sun the rest six months because the axis of earth rotation makes around 30 degree angle. The shadow is different in different months of the year because of this reason.
Because the earth is round, or curved, the soil on the basis of the shadow of the stick will not be the same angle with the sun, like Ecuador. For this reason, the shadow of the stick is not moving at a constant rate throughout the day.
Finally human discovered that a aiming the gnomon in the north presents a more accurate sundial. Because of the tilt of the Earth, hour characters remain same all over the year,.Following this discovery, people were able to built much better sundial.
Throughout the history numerous types of sundials were developed to provide time more and more accurately. Egyptians invented time stick in the form of T. It consisted of a vertical post and the crossbar from five hours were written characters on a stick. The stick was faced north in the morning. Shadows of the cross fall on the stick and move till noon.
In the evening, the stick turned to the west. Egyptians built smaller sundial after some trial and errors. The opening of smaller versions of portable sundial tells the time and became important for the Egyptian. this smaller version of obelisk turned as sundial.
Peasants of the middle ages in Northern Europe using the sun set on the bottom of his wooden clogs. To find out the time, the peasants stands on facing the sun. The hour was reported from the shoe heel shadow cast on the dial.
Another device, medieval Europe has used is the wheel by hand. Gnomon of the sundial was just a stick; carried out on the corner with the thumb. Gnomon was held in his left hand in the morning, and hand horizontal to the ground and pointed to the west. In the afternoon of the gnomon in the right hand and arm pointed to the east. In search of greater precision in the movement of the Earth's position during the year, flat plate solar hours have changed ever after then.
In the Renaissance; sundial change rapidly and in a variety of designs have been created. In addition to the hour and minute hands tell the time brands have other properties that are sometimes recorded. Some of the selected sundial during Renaissance show the season, date, time of sunrise and sunset, zodiac signs, and directions.
People still make the sundial even today`s digital age. Sundial could count on him to keep the correct time, and is often used to set the time on the clock that stopped! Sundial still the most popular way to set the time before clocks to make it easier for people who say that it is time to think of our heritage.
Today, most people have in their garden sundial for decorations, not as a means of time. With the advent of digital clocks, you should take no more portable sundial. But the sundial should not be forgotten to modern man. The sun always raises in the morning and sets in the evening, resulting in a sundial to tell one of the most reliable method of telling time at present.
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