SunCalc Lab

     For this lab I took six measurements over two days. I will list the measurements from the earliest time to the latest time.  I measured the shadow and recorded it as the adjacent line (a) for my sine, cosine, and tangent measurements, the stick (27") as the opposite (o),  and the distance from the end of the shadow back up to the top of the stick as the hypotenuse (h)  which I calculated using the A squared + B squared = C squared formula. I rounded my measurements to the nearest whole number,  which I believe skewed my measurements slightly as my sine, cosine, and tangent did not always  produce the same angle of the sun when I looked them up on the chart.  I observed that at the beginning and end of the day the angle of the sun was smaller, and in the middle of the day the angle was the largest.


 Time: 8:46 AM
 Direction of shadow: 302° Northwest
  a = 100 "
  o = 27 "
  h = 104"

sin: 27/104 = .25
cos: 100/104 = .96
tan: 27/100 = .27

 When I looked these numbers up on the chart, the angle of the sun was 15°  for all three.


 Time: 10:40 AM
 Direction of shadow:  319° NW
 a =  57"
 o = 27"
 h  =  63 "

sin: 27/63 = .4
cos: 57/63 = .9
tan: 27/57 = .47

The angle of the sun for my sin and cos was 24° and for tan was  25°

Time: 11:35 AM
Direction of Shadow:  341° NW
a =  35 "
o = 27"
h = 44 "

sin: 27/44 = .6
cos: 35/44 = .8
tan: 27/35 = .8

The angle of the sun for my sin was  37°, for cos  36°, for tan  39°.

Time = 12:14 PM
Direction:  355°N
a =  33 "
o = 27 "
h = 42 "

sin: 27/42 = .64
cos: 33/42 = .76
tan: 27/33 = .81

The  angle for sin was  40°, cos was  41°, tan  39°

Time: 3:15 PM
 Direction:  33°NE
a =  49"
o = 27"
h = 56 "

sin: 27/56 = .48
cos: 49/56 = .875
tan: 27/49 = .55

The  angle for sin was  30°, for cos and tan  29°

 Time: 4:59 PM
 Direction:  54° NE
a =  134"
o =  27"
h = 139 "

sin: 27/139 = .2
cos: 134/139 = .96
tan: 27/134 = .201

The  angle for sin and tan  was 12°, cos was  15°

Water Run-Off

Surface water run-off can be very dangerous for the land and water around the impervious surface (such as the parking lot). The problem with an impervious surface is that it does not have any of the natural filters, such as grass, leaves, and soil, that soak up and slow down the passage of water. When water builds up in/on an impervious surface, the runoff will be a huge amount of water hitting the ground very quickly. This can "scar" the earth, pushing the natural filters out of the way and causing bad erosion. Another danger is that as this water moves along the ground tearing up layers of top-soil, it becomes contaminated with pesticides, chemicals, and other things that were in the soil. This turbidity is a big problem, since the water will drain eventually in to another source of water, like the Ocmulgee River, and will contaminate it. This can lead to health dangers for the plants, fish, and other organisms, as well as for the people who eat those fish or play in the water itself.

(The above picture has Willet Science Center's parking lot traced in a white line)

Rachel Carson

  http://www.rachelcarson.org/

 Rachel Carson  was born in Pennsylvania in 1907.  She is credited with being one of the first politically active female environmentalists as well as one of the first proponents of an environmental movement. Her importance as an environmentalist figure comes from the fact that she worked on multiple levels to promote the interests of the environment, as a writer, marine biologist, educator, and ecologist. She worked for 15 years as a scientist and editor for the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service, where she wrote pamphlets and edited articles on conservation as well as doing a series of seven minutes radio pieces on marine life.  During this time she And writing writing letter letter and and articles in newspapers and urging people to focus on the environmental repercussions of development and to think of animal and environmental welfare.
  She was not only a scientific presence, but also capable of writing her findings in poetic lyric and prose. Her  first book was published in 1941, and was titled  Under the sea wind. Writing in a style that was readable and enjoyable for the average person  made her work accessible to everyone, not just the scientific community-- an important part of getting laypeople involved in the environmental movement. She  published  to more books on Marine ecology that were successful enough to allow her to quit her job at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Her fourth book, Silent Spring,  is perhaps her best remembered contribution.  It drew attention to the possible dangers of pesticides such as DDT,  and as such created a huge amount of controversy and invoked the anger of the pesticide companies.  as a result of her book, Carson was asked to testify before a congressional committee for a federal government  examination of pesticides and DDT was banned.
   She died in 1964 of cancer, and is still remembered as one of the first scientists to engage public attention and interest in the environment.