sunset info... aka crappy project
Date Sunset time
10/05/2005 6:47 PM
10/10/05 6:38 PM
10/14/05 6:31 PM
10/17/2005 6:26 PM
10/20/2005 6:21 PM
10/21/2005 6:20 PM
11/04/2005 5:59 PM
11/08/2005 5:54 PM
11/15/2005 5:47 PM
11/21/2005 5:41 PM
11/27/2005 5:37 PM
These times are without the daylight savings time change for the purpose of a continual beautiful line on my graph.
This is the table with the data from the night I spent observing the sunset. This form of table is about as basic as it gets. As it turns out, noone I know uses Microsoft Excel anymore so my information is being presented in the best way I can with my resources.
As I started out doing this project I realized that living here in Oregon had it’s major downfalls, especially as in Eugene we live in a valley surrounded my mountains and trees, however I didn’t allow this to be a deterrent. I instead opted to get a little creative and find a spot. I finally found a spot to watch the sunset, right off of northwest expressway heading north, and so that is where I observed on these nights.
I didn’t realize how early it gets dark, but this is what my watch told me, so this is what I have to believe.
I know in my brain that Winter Solstice, December 21, is the shortest day of the year, but I wanted to try and prove that.
By examining my chart, and looking at the numbers, I concluded that as we approach December 21, the amount of time that passes between each sunset diminishes as we approach the solstice. For example, in between October 10, and October 14, 7 minutes passes over four days. OCT.10 :6:38, Oct 14,: 6:31, seven minutes which is roughly 1.8 minutes a day.
Yet, when you get to November 04 and November 8, only 5 minutes difference, from 5:59 to 5:54. Which is 1.25 minutes a day change. And later November 21, to November 27, 6 days pass, however only 4 minutes difference. We are very obviously approaching a point where eventually negative time would pass each day, and at that point, the sun stays out longer.
Now on October 21, the sun sets at 6:20 pm, and on November 21, the sun sets at 5:41. There is a difference of 31 minutes. That equals a minute a day, exactly. Now the duration of this project is just under 3 months, so it is very had to determine anything exactly, but by assuming the change in time between Nov. 21, and December 21 is similar to the change between Oct. 21 and Nov. 21, however we know it cannot be a 1:1 ratio, as by November 15th to November 21, we have an exact 1:1 ratio and any time after that must be less, so it’s a fairly reasonable conclusion to assume it’s a 2:1 ratio and that over that month, the time will change by 15 minutes, which is one half of the month between the dates and on Winter Solstice, 12/21/05, the time of sunset will be 5:26. And by reimplementing the daylight savings time, it will be 4:26 pm on December 21, when the sun sets. I know I’ll be outside to find out if I’m right or not.