Report from SPACE club, Hillwoods Academy on winter solstice day

Report on winter solstice day activities

Hillwoods academy, preet vihar SPACE club celebrated the winter solstice in a different way! This year we decided to do eratosthenes experiment and local noon experiment in tandem with another brach of our school in Gandhinagar, Gujrat where the school happens to be very close to tropic of Cancer! We planned to do the local noon finding at both the places of winter solstice day with gnomons of different shapes and sizes to make it more interesting. Mr. C B Devgun, President SPACE was invited on 20^thDecember to give a talk on the winter solstice day and what students can do on that day. He interacted with students of SPACE club and other students and suggested them to find local noon with shadow formation of various objects.

On the day of winter solstice, around 6 teams from Hillwoods preet Vihar and 4 teams from Hillwoods Gandhinagar took the readings of the local noon. Hillwoods academy preet vihar team was under the guidance of Babita Kundalia, Coordinator, SPACE club. Various gnomons like gnomon stick provided by SPACE, basket ball pole, statue of liberty model, cricket stumps, road sighs were used to take the shadow measurements and students really enjoyed doing the shadow experiment! Hillwoods academy teams found the sunangle to be 52 degrees and Gandhinagar students found it to be 47 degrees as reported by them in evening. That turns out to be a difference of 5 degrees in latitude in both the schools (which was later verified from google earth)!! Local noon timings between both the schools were found to be around 18 minutes which converts to 4.5 degrees in longitude difference. Earth circumference was also measured taking these readings into consideration. A detailed report with readings will be soon made and sent.

We are attaching the images from the activity in the Hillwoods academy preet vihar. Pictures from the Gandhinagar branch are awaited. Students really enjoyed doing the experiment and will repeat the same again during equinox days and summer solstice day. We would like to thank SPACE for providing the technical support for the event.

RESULTS of the "scientist of the day"

STEPL (Space Technology and Education Pvt. Ltd.) conducted an experiment for school children as part of the Winter Solstice Day celebrations at Jantar Mantar on 22nd Dec by SPACE.

The competition titled 'Scientist of the Day' involved measuring the shadow of a long stick over a period of time and using the shortest shadow to find the Circumference of the Earth. This uses the concept that the sun rays shine directly overhead on the Tropic of Capricorn (the latitude line at 23.5° south, passing through Brazil, South Africa, and Australia) on the day of Winter Solstice. Younger students participated in a competition "Measuring the Sun Angle" which was a smaller part of the original one.

About 150 students from 21 schools from Delhi NCR participated in this competition, including schools such as The Airforce School, Subroto Park; DPS Sonepat; Ryan International School, Rohini; Step by Step, Noida; Apeejay School, Saket, etc. The students sat in groups amidst the green lawns surrounded by the ancient monuments and measured away for a couple of hours. It was a great experience for the teachers and students to be involved in such a project.

All the groups did a great job and attended to the measurements with attention and diligence. I am proud to announce the winners of these two competitions:

In Senior Section Ryan International School, Vasant Kunj won the first prize where as team 8 and team 7 from Ryan International School, Rohini got second and third prize respectively.

In Junior Section team 5 from The Air Force School, Subrato Park won the first prize where as team 15 and team 16 from Step By Step Greater Noida stood second and third prize respectively.

images from the khagol mela at jantar mantar during winter solstice 2009

working at Ram Yantra

Explaining jaiprakas yantra

explaining working of samrat yantra

for more image click here

WINTER SOLSTICE ACTIVITIES

WINTER SOLSTICE ACTIVITIES FOR SCHOOLS:

1. Find the sun angle on the day of the solstice to see what altitude the sun attains when its on the southernmost side.

2. Track Shadow created by sun

Use a Gnomon to create a shadow at local noon. Measure this shadow over a few days, centering the days before and after the winter solstice.

WINTER SOLSTICE - Dec. 21st 2009

The Shortest Day of the Year 

KHAGOL MELA

at JANTAR MANTAR

Organised by SPACE and Nehru Planetarium jointly

21 December 2009, what is so special about this day? It's the shortest day of the year for people living on the Northern side of the Equator and is called the Winter Solstice. But what does it mean exactly?

We know that the Earth rotates about itself and it is tilted a bit. It also revolves around the Sun in an elliptical orbit. Because of this tilt of the Earth, each day, the Sun takes a different path in the sky as viewed from the Earth. But there are two days in the year when the Sun shines directly over the Tropic of Capricorn (Winter Solstice in Northern Hemisphere) and the tropic of Cancer (Summer Solstice in Northern Hemisphere) respectively. On the day of Winter Solstice, North Pole tilts away from the Sun and South Pole tilts towards the Sun. The Winter Solstice occurs exactly when the earth's axial tilt is farthest away from the sun at its maximum of 23° 26'. So the Sun shines at lowest heights in Northern skies and at maximum heights at Southern skies. It results in the shortest day in the Northern Hemisphere but at the same time it’s the longest day in Southern Hemisphere. So for people in Southern Hemisphere it’s a Summer Solstice.

Winter Solstice indicates winter at its peak. After this, the length of the day starts increasing and it reaches a point where day and night becomes equal in length at Vernal or Spring Equinox. The day continues to grow longer till Summer Solstice, the longest day.

On 21st December ‘09, the Winter Solstice will be at 17:47 UT or 23:17 IST. In New Delhi, sunrise on winter solstice day is at 7:10 am and sunset is at 5:29 pm making it a day which is about 10 hours in duration.

by

S.P.A.C.E. (Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators)