Knowing North: Understanding the Relationship between Time and the Sun

This activity shows how our experience of the Sun changes with time and location. The sun dagger at Chaco Canyon is thought by many to be a sort of ancient timekeeping device. By creating a place where the movement of the Sun could be tracked day after day, Chacoans could mark the passage of time and gain an idea of when seasons were changing. If the Chacoans could use a particular location and the Sun to tell them about time, can we use time and the Sun to tell us about our location? In this easy experiment, you'll see how the position of the Sun in the sky is related to where we are on the earth.