Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hey! I live in Washington DC. That is RELEVANT! Anyway, I am doing the project entitled: Solar Speedway. You can view it here: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p013.shtml

SO...my science teacher is making us do science fair...ugh. But she wants me to find sources on the positions of the Sun and the EXACT positions at each hour. Now this is hard because I have NO idea where to find them! The Sun positions are different at different locations! But my science teacher wants a source! I CANNOT find the exact locations, can anybody help with that? That would be greatly appreciated!

And one more thing...I need to find a 'Control' for the experiment as well. If you haven't learned that term yet, it means something that will not change in the experiment. Can you help me find that also? The link tells you everything I will do in my experiment. Thanks Much!

Hi,

Here is an answer on how to compute sun position anywhere in the world at any time, with citations as to the sources:

http://answers.google.com/answers/threa ... 82886.html

Here is a calculator aplet from NOAA to do the calculations for any date/time:

http://users.zoominternet.net/~matto/Ja ... ulator.htm

If you do a Google search on sun azimuth formula you can find other resources.
(Note that you will have to specify the desired latitude and longitude for the observations.)
Here is a Google search for Washington DC lattitude and longitude:
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_e ... hington_DC

Or
http://www.batchgeo.com/lookup/

You should be able to answer these questions on your own. One easy way to explore for answers is to just type your question or key words into the http://www.google.com search box. This will usually produce a fairly good answer within a few tries if you examine up to five or so pages of search results. I have also had good luck with bing.com

I will leave it to you to figure out your own control. See the Science Buddies Project Guide if you need help understanding what a control is:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... bles.shtml

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ndex.shtml

I hope this helps!

Best regards,

Barrett L Tomlinson