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We have days and nights on earth due to the Earth rotating around axis. Approximately over 23.6 hours our Earth makes one complete rotation and as we rotate, we rotate away from the sun (night) and back towards it (day). A sundial works by gauging the suns position in the sky relative to where we are in that 24 hour period. The sun casts shadows on the sundial in different places as it moves across our sky, indicating different times. The time piece on the sundial is called a "gnomon" and by reading where the shadow falls when the sun hits the gnomon we can estimate the time of day.

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16y ago

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