Method:
First, I put a stick in the ground in a sunny area. When it was sunny, I drew a line using chalk over the shadow of the stick and put the time at the top. Then, I measured the chalk line in cm.
Results:
Conclusion:
The shadow was 38.5 cm long at 11:19. In an hours time, the shadow had shortened by 7.5 cm. At 13:00 the shadow was at its shortest length: 29.5 cm. From 13:00 the length of the shadow increased. At 17:30 its length was 66.5 cm.
From the photograph of the sundial, you can see that the shadow moved clockwise as the time increased.
The length of the shadow shortened until 13:00 because the Earth was spinning. At 13:00 the sun was above us meaning it was at its highest. The shadow had been getting shorter because the stick had been losing light to block up to 13:00. After 13:00 the shadow got longer because the stick gradually started blocking more light. The position of the shadow changed because the Earth was spinning meaning the position of the sun appeared to be changing. Therefore, as the Earth spun anti-clockwise the stick shadow’s position moved clockwise with the sun.