Edison Tech Center Pi Day Quiz 2024

This year, on April 8 2024, a solar eclipse will be visible across much of the United States of America. This is an opportunity to do some engineering! The Pi Day Quiz questions are all related to the solar eclipse.

1) You project an image of the Sun onto the ground. The image has a one inch diameter. Then you adjust the projection so that it has a four inch diameter. How much dimmer is the image?

2) You project an image of the Sun onto the ground. The image has a two inch diameter. Then you take a photograph of the image, so that the Sun fills one-twenty-fifth of the photograph. The photo is a square containing 2 million pixels. How many pixels in the photograph are of the Sun?

3) Using the same two inch image of the Sun, you take a photo of the Sun so that the Sun fills one-ninth of the photograph. How many pixels in the photograph are of the Sun (using the same square 2 million pixel photo)?

4) If your image of the Sun is too small, you won't see small features of the Sun, like small sunspots. If your image of the Sun is too dim, you might have a difficult time taking a photograph of the image, since the Earth is constantly turning and the image will move and blur. Some solar astronomers use tracking devices to keep their images from blurring. An inexpensive tracking device called a Scotch Mount and a Barn Door Mount is turned by a 1/4-20 screw. Design a Barn Door Mount replacing the 1/4-20 screw with a 5/8-11 screw. (A 1/4-20 has a 1/4 inch diameter and 20 threads per inch. A 5/8-11 has a diameter of 5/8 inch and 11 threads per inch)

5) The Sun and the Moon observed from the Earth, only align occasionally, due to the not-perfectly elliptical and not perfectly ecliptical orbit of the Moon. This just means that solar eclipses don't happen every month, and that total solar eclipses, when the Moon completely covers the Sun, only happen for a small area of the Earth when they happen. But the Sun does change the ionosphere, which effects how far radio signals can travel. What's the furthest radio station you can pick up during a solar eclipse?

   


Sources: Edison Tech Center