


Measure the height of your school with the use of the sun

Suitable For

Grade 7



Time Required

 <12 Hours



What’s it about?

There are many fascinating ways of determining the height of a tall building without having to physically measure its facade. Think of some ways to measure the height of your school building with relative accuracy and ask some of your friends to help. This science experiment is based on the general idea that tall objects cast longer shadows than short objects do:

Topics covered


What will I need?


Procedure (Method)


How does it work?


In this science experiment, you can calculate your school building’s height by using the proportion of a yardstick’s shadow length to its height. You have to measure both shadows as quickly as possible, after one another, since the sun’s position in the sky, and hence its shadow length, is slowly but constantly changing.

Since you know the length of the building’s shadow cast on the ground, and you also know that a yardstick of certain height produces a certain shadow length, you can determine your school building’s height with a little math.

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