Following a Tree's Shadow: Can Shadows Help Us Tell Time? A 14-Day Study of the Shadow of a Sago Palm and a Shadow-Clock Design

This study follows the shadow of a single sago palm in Trendset Winz Community Park, Nanakramguda, Hyderabad. An eight-year-old child researcher had noticed that a tree's shadow moves during the day and wondered whether shadows could be used to tell the time. For fourteen days, from 24 August to 6 September 2026, she visited the tree at 7:50 am, 1:00 pm and 3:50 pm. Each time she measured how long the shadow was and noted which way it pointed. She also recorded when the shadow was shortest, how many creatures were resting in the shade, and the weather. The shadow followed the same pattern every day. It was about three metres long and pointed west in the morning, was only a few tens of centimetres long at 1:00 pm, and was just under two metres long and pointed east in the afternoon. One finding was unexpected: the 1:00 pm shadow grew a little longer each day, from 30 cm to 43 cm. With adult help, the readings were compared with the position of the sun calculated for the park. The comparison matched closely and explained the slow lengthening. In late August and early September the midday sun in Hyderabad moves a little further south each day as the September equinox approaches. The paper also notes that the sun is highest at the park at about 12:15 pm, not at 1:00 pm, and questions some repeated readings taken on cloudy days. Because a shadow moves so regularly, it can be used to tell the time without electricity. This idea led to the design of a shadow clock: a stick fixed upright in a circular cardboard base marked with the compass directions. The paper uses the observations to suggest improvements, such as putting the morning hour marks on the west side and tilting the stick at about 17°, the latitude of Hyderabad, so that the clock does not drift with the seasons. The clock has not yet been built and tested.