If one asked some friends where on the horizon they should expect to see the sunrise, half of the answers would be "in the east." Of course, something analogous would happen with the sunset and the west. However, sunrise and sunset virtually never occur at these cardinal points. In fact, those answers correctly describe observations only during the equinoxes, when either autumn or spring begin. Once we recall this, the next natural question to ask ourselves is: how far from the east (or from the west) the rising (or setting) Sun is located for a given latitude of the observer and for a given day of the year. In this paper we supply some simple tools to easily visualize the angular (southward or northward) departure of the rising and setting Sun on the horizon from the east-west direction in a pictorial way, without the need of mathematics. These tools have proven a valuable resource in teaching introductory physics and astronomy courses.
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
February 2011
PAPERS|
February 01 2011
Whither Does the Sun Rove?
Alejandro Gangui
Alejandro Gangui
CONICET and University of Buenos Aires
Search for other works by this author on:
Alejandro Gangui
CONICET and University of Buenos Aires
Phys. Teach. 49, 91–93 (2011)
Citation
Alejandro Gangui; Whither Does the Sun Rove?. Phys. Teach. 1 February 2011; 49 (2): 91–93. https://doi.org/10.1119/1.3543582
Download citation file:
Pay-Per-View Access
$40.00
Sign In
You could not be signed in. Please check your credentials and make sure you have an active account and try again.
Citing articles via
A “Perpetual Motion Machine” Powered by Electromagnetism
Hollis Williams
Challenging ChatGPT with Different Types of Physics Education Questions
Víctor López-Simó, Mikael Frank Rezende, Jr.
Related Content
From the Scale Model of the Sky to the Armillary Sphere
Phys. Teach. (October 2014)
Fixing the Shadows While Moving the Gnomon
Phys. Teach. (April 2015)
Feezya, my love!
Phys. Teach. (November 2018)
Observe Your Shadow
Phys. Teach. (April 2016)
Ballistic motion of dust particles in the Lunar Roving Vehicle dust trails
Am. J. Phys. (May 2012)