How can a sundial reliably work when the sun’s position in the sky changes from day to day and month to month with days getting longer/shorter, etc?

Question

How can a sundial reliably work when the sun’s position in the sky changes from day to day and month to month with days getting longer/shorter, etc?

In: Technology

Answer 1

They aren’t actually accurate with clock time. They are only going to be exactly synced 4 times a year, and at the most inaccurate is going to be off by about 16 minutes. Which if you are living in times before mechanical timekeeping is generally good enough. You can add an offset based on the date though if you really need more accuracy using based on the date and a chart like this one for your location.

https://earthsky.org/upl/2010/04/10apr14_430.jpg