Mr O'Donoghue's TY mathematics students spent a sunny noon time measuring the lengths of shadows on Thursday, 19th March. Their efforts were part of the global "Eratosthenes Project" - a collaboration to collect data needed to calculate the Earth's circumference.
Using shadow lengths to calculate the angle of elevation of the sun in the sky at solar noon on the spring equinox (or a day either side), it is possible to work out the size of the Earth - a calculation first carried out by Eratosthenes of Alexandria 2,300 years ago.
This is the fourth year attempting to collect data, and the very first time we were not foiled by rain and clouds
