| St. Jude School : Final Report | Collège Antonin Perbosc, Lafrançaise , France |
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Our school is located in a suburb of Montreal, Canada, at 45:29N (latitude) and 73:29W (longitude). We are 28 students in grade 5(class5IA). Our teacher, Mrs. Mirza introduced this project to us in September. She explained to us how Eratosthenes performed a simple experiment 2200 years ago to measure the circumference of the Earth. His calculation is still considered accurate today by scientists. We went on the Noonday website and did some research. At first, the whole idea appeared quite complicated to us. Most of us had trouble understanding some ideas and how they were going to help us determine the circumference of the Earth. But as we got more involved, the process started to become clear. We carried out the shadow measurements on September 21 st 2007, which was as close as we could get to the Autumn Equinox (September 23 rd). The shadow measurements (99cm) at high local noon time (12:48pm) helped us determine our sun angle which was 44 degrees. The next step was to choose a partner city whose sun angle could help us find the central angle. We decided to select Abba’s Orchard in Philippines, as it is far away. Their sun angle was 8.4 degrees. The difference between the two became our central angle, that is, 35.6 degrees. Now Mrs. Mirza showed us how the central angle could be compared to a slice in a big circle. We could then understand that the arc of the central angle represented the distance between the two cities. Once we knew the North/South distance between us and Abba’s Orchard, by subtracting the 2 latitudes, we could then multiply the arc’s length with the number of slices in a circle. These are some of our calculations: No. of slices= 360°divided by 35.6 degrees =10.1 N/S distance= 4 116.25 km Circumference of the Earth = 4116.25x 10.1 = 41, 574.12 km Conclusions : We learned a great deal from this project. We now know how knowledge of angles helps us in real life, how the circumference is calculated and much more. Before doing this project we didn’t know a lot about latitude and longitude and what these lines help us find on the globe. All of us are very proud of our learning. We can see how Math, Science and Technology work together in any scientific study. Students of Class 5IA |
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| Collège Antonin Perbosc, Lafrançaise , France | |
| 6 classes and 150 students have participated to the project. We were lucky to have sun for all the measurements that we planned, except on the day of the equinox (23/09/2007). All the classes could calculate the circumference with a real partner. We never had those conditions on the European project. We apologize for not being able to publish all the results. We selected schools that had a photography.The other measures have been used for the final written test . Localize the schools  Open in a Google window / Ouvrir dans une fenêtre Google Open in a new window / Ouvrir dans une nouvelle fenêtre september 17 Lafrançaise, France  shadow: 90cm angle:42.000° Stanford, Kentucky USA, Home school   latitude: 37.533° shadow: 72cm angle:35.750° distance: 733km circumference: 42221km september 19 Lafrançaise, France  shadow: 92cm angle:42.500° New York, USA, The Dwight School  latitude: 40.470° shadow: 82cm angle:39.333° distance: 372km circumference: 42291km september 20 Lafrançaise, France  shadow: 93cm angle:43.000° Wharton, New Jersey USA, MacKinnon Middle School  latitude: 40.800° shadow: 84cm angle:40.000° distance: 370km circumference: 44400km september 21 Lafrançaise, France  shadow: 94.5cm angle:43.333° Yuba City, California, USA, Riverbend Middle School  latitude: 39.090° shadow: 78.45cm angle:38.100° distance: 559km circumference: 38454km Adélaïde, Australia, Hamilton Secondary college  latitude: -34.900° shadow: 70cm angle:35.000° distance: 8791km circumference: 40401km Warren, Oregon, USA, Warren Elementary School  latitude: 45.810° shadow: 91.5cm angle:45.100° distance: 187km circumference: 38106km Chillicothe, Ohio , USA, Unioto High School  latitude:39.367° shadow: 79.1cm angle: 38.344° distance: 530km circumference: 38288km september 24 Lafrançaise, France  shadow: 98.5cm angle:44.500° Baungon, Philippines: The Abba’s Orchard  latitude: 8.417° shadow: 15.25cm angle: 8.667° distance: 3968km circumference: 39865km Arras, France, école Lafontaine  latitude: 50.283° shadow: 123cm angle: 51,000° distance: 683km circumference: 37828km Maricopa, Arizona, USA, Wells Middle School  latitude:33.054° shadow: 64cm angle: 34.000° distance: 1231km circumference:42206km Gulf Breeze, Florida USA, Oriole Beach Elementary  latitude:30.367° shadow: 56cm angle: 30.000° distance: 1529km circumference: 37961km Virginia Beach, USA, Princess Anne Middle School  latitude:36.117° shadow: cm angle: 37.183° distance: 820km circumference: 40346km september 25 Lafrançaise, France  shadow: 100cm angle:45.000° New York, Brooklyn, USA ,Brooklyn Friends School  latitude:40.683° shadow: 86cm angle: 42° distance: 413km circumference: 49560km Wrocław, Poland, Liceum Ogólnokształcące  latitude: 51.110° shadow: 118.5cm (gnomon : 102cm) angle: 49.333° distance: 776km circumference: 64468km september 26 Lafrançaise, France  shadow: 100cm angle:45.000° Placerville, California, USA, Herbert Green Middle School  latitude:38.692° shadow: 85.9cm angle: 40° distance: 604km circumference: 43488km september 28 Lafrançaise, France  shadow: 104.5cm angle:46.250° Naples, Florida, USA, Pelican Marsh Elementary  latitude:26.100° shadow: 62.5cm angle:35°00' distance: 2004km circumference: 64128km |
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