Okay, so yesterday I was messing around with this “sun eight” thing, and let me tell you, it was quite the adventure. I’d heard about using the sun to figure out directions and stuff, but I’d never actually tried it myself. So, I thought, why not give it a shot?
First, I grabbed a stick from my backyard. Nothing fancy, just a regular old stick. Then, I found a sunny spot in my yard. The key here is FULL SUN, not behind a building, not behind a tree, but like, really, really in the sun. I jammed the stick into the ground, making sure it was standing up straight. This was my makeshift “sun rod”. Sounds a bit official, doesn’t it?
- Find a sunny place
- Get a stick
- Jam it into the ground
Then came the waiting game. I marked where the shadow of the stick ended with a small rock. After about 15 or 20 minutes, I went back and marked the new position of the shadow’s end. It had moved, of course, because, well, the sun moves across the sky. Or rather, the Earth rotates, but you know what I mean.
Here comes the fun part.
I drew a straight line connecting the two marks I made. This line shows the general east-west direction. The first mark is west, and the second mark is east. It’s like magic, but it’s just science doing its thing. I stood with the west mark to my left and the east mark to my right. Guess what? I was facing north! BOOM! Basic navigation without a compass. It feels pretty cool to figure out directions just using the sun and a stick, I gotta say.
I spent the rest of the afternoon experimenting with this. I tried it in different locations in my yard, at different times of the day. The shadows were longer in the morning and shorter around noon, naturally. But that east-west line? It was always consistent. I even used the stick to make a makeshift sundial, marking the hours on the ground. It wasn’t super precise, but it was close enough. I felt like a real explorer, or some kind of survival expert.
It was a fun and educational day, to say the least. I learned something new, and I got to spend some quality time outside. If you’re ever bored or just curious, I highly recommend giving this “sun eight” experiment a try. It’s simple, it’s fun, and you might just learn something. It’s all about using what you have and a bit of creativity. And who knows, maybe one day this little trick will come in handy when you’re lost in the woods, or you know, just showing off to your friends.
After doing all that in one day, I really did it. It’s just simple steps and then you can find your way just by the sun and one stick.
