How to Make a Hypsometer

This is a simple one, but I think well worth it, and very cheap to make.  For any of you taking Trigonometry or Physics this semester this actually might come in handy.  You can use this to measure (with accurate results) the angles of elevation and depression.  With these numbers you can then do lots of great things such as calculating the height of a building or a mountain (not as accurate, but close enough).  I actually just used this little device to measure the height of the climbing wall at the gym in my workplace (that's right, my workplace has a climbing wall)!

Let's get started!

Step 1 What You'll Need

List of Materials:

Protractor
Laser Pen or drinking straw
String or fishing line
Fishing Sinker
Gorilla Glue (Optional for extra strength)

That's it, not very expensive.  You can get all of these things at walmart for less than $10.  I happened to have all of them lying around.

Comments

[NaturalCrafter]

I always wanted to come up with a project for my laser pen other than have the dog chase it around. lol.. I have made the protractor measuring device to measure the height of trees but we did not have a laser pen then. Technology is great!

[The Ideanator]

Oooh a hypsometer variant! I did one for a science fair back in elementary and got second place (because I didn't do more trials). Mine consisted of a PVC tube with twine cross-hairs at the end instead of a laser. It was fun, I impressed people.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Wow, I didn't know there was a real name for this thing. Nice!

[The Ideanator]

Yep.

[kelseymh]

Anything with geometry and physics (not to mention spelling and grammar!) deserves a Feature. Great little project, and a wonderfully inexpensive teaching moment!

[The Ideanator]

I think its a feature-worthy project, to be honest.

[Lithium Rain]

Well. If THAT's all I have to do to get a feature from you...

[kelseymh]

Well, that plus meet all the basic criteria. Without Science, the rest is all just fluff :-)

[ybedull]

You could always do one on negativity, I can't recall seeing one done on THAT yet. This is great and very creative!!!

[Spaceman Spiff]

Thanks, I'm glad you liked it.

[Wazzupdoc]

If you pace off the distance to the object you are measuring (say, in feet). You simply multiply the angle measured times the paced distance times 0.01746 (or 0.018 to be simple) . This gives you the height of the object in the units used to pace off the distance. The factor 0.01746 is the Tangent of 1 degree.

[wareneutron]

i know that, i know what link find that this in www.reject.com/member/spaceman/
spiff/

[Spaceman Spiff]

What?