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Math / Engineering Problem

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout' started by Mulder, Apr 19, 2010.

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  1. Mulder

    Mulder Member

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    I work in a 2 story building and have a window in my office that starts about 4 feet off the floor and runs to the ceiling (10 feet?). I am facing the south and get a fair amount of sun, which is great.

    Problem is that they are about to build a 4 story building 50 feet away from my window.

    I know there is someone on here that can knock out this in a formula quickly.

    Am I about lose all my sunlight? :mad:
     
  2. Dei

    Dei Member

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    Your window is facing the south? 4 story building'll be built to the south?
     
  3. s2kboy16

    s2kboy16 Member

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    My initial reaction is that it shouldnt affect the sun light into your office considering you are facing south and are probably getting a lot of vertical rays anyways.
     
  4. kaleidosky

    kaleidosky Member

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    will you get even more sun at other times if the building has some really good material for bouncing the light into your window? maybe it's a plus!
     
  5. Mulder

    Mulder Member

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    That is correct.
     
  6. Mulder

    Mulder Member

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    Knowing UH, I doubt it will be glass or high gloss...
     
  7. candlegreen

    candlegreen Member

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    I'd assume these factors will come into place....

    1) How tall is this 4 story building.
    2) Your window is facing the south.... Which way is your desk facing? I'd assume that you're only getting sunlight at parts of your room or the most part.
    3) Your window starts 4 feet from the floor?!? I guess the view was not what you're looking for if you're sitting down.
     
  8. Dei

    Dei Member

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    The light's being reflected off the ground? How far inside your celing?
     
  9. Mulder

    Mulder Member

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    1) I would assume standard height for an office building 12-15 foot floors each for a total height of between 48-60 feet.
    2) desk faces a wall east so the window is too my right.
    3) well I can see the sky and the tops of buildings south of me in the distance if I am sitting down. The window takes up the entire top half of the south wall.


    Not sure what you mean...
     
  10. Dei

    Dei Member

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    Is the light you're afraid of losing getting light reflected off the ground? Is there a portion of your ceiling being illuminated? How far inside your room does the illumination stretch?
     
  11. DonkeyMagic

    DonkeyMagic Member
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    i don't think you're going to notice much difference.
     
  12. Dei

    Dei Member

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    How tall is the first floor of your building?
     
  13. Dubious

    Dubious Member

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  14. Mulder

    Mulder Member

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    Not reflected off the ground in my office. The light from the window lights the entire room since the window is about 10 feet wide and 6 feet high.
     
  15. Dei

    Dei Member

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    Ahhh...

    I meant, "is the light reflected off the ground outside your office building?" Like so:

    [​IMG]
     
  16. Mulder

    Mulder Member

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    Well to some degree but the ground outside my building now is dirt. Soon to be grass.

    Here is a picture out of my window now.

    [​IMG]
     
  17. g1184

    g1184 Member

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    You wont lose sunlight. The shadow of the building across from yours will extend about 40 feet from its base. I used the website whathisface posted, Oct 1st as estimated completion date of the building, and noon as the time of day.


    Here's how you do it yourself:

    UH is at latitude 95.35 west and longitude 29.72 north
    choose 'south' as the option for 'zero azimuth'
    choose your date and time
    click calculate and check the azimuth angle - you want to choose a time of day when the azimuth angle is close to zero (around noon)
    after you figure out when that is, plug the 'altitude angle' into the formula to figure out how far the shadow will extend:

    60/tan(56*pi/180)

    (you can copy/paste the thing into google to get an answer)
     
  18. g1184

    g1184 Member

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    also, pray to God that they put a parking lot outside your window because that building site looks more like 2 feet away than 50 feet.
     
  19. Mulder

    Mulder Member

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    That's what I was thinking but they said there would be 50 feet from our building to the next. The dirt that is left is still from our build (we are still under construction). They apparently may dig up some of the sidewalk you see in the distance.
     
  20. Mulder

    Mulder Member

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    Thanks!
     

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