A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day when there is sunlight by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a flat plate and a gnomon, which casts a shadow onto the dial.

What does a sundial represent?

Sundial, the earliest type of timekeeping device, which indicates the time of day by the position of the shadow of some object exposed to the sun's rays. As the day progresses, the sun moves across the sky, causing the shadow of the object to move and indicating the passage of time.

What is a human sundial?

e. Overview. Analemmatic sundials are sundials which have a movable gnomon (the gnomon is the part that casts the shadow). Humans are common gnomons for an analemmatic sundial, and the resulting sundials are usually called human sundials.