Tree of Science, January 8

A beautiful day today, with lots of sun early on.

A Few Statistics

So, you've begun to see some of the beauty of the Tree of Science (TOS). Now, it's time to think a little more about its details. First, the tree is a Sugar Maple. Here's our local botanical tag:

The TOS is obviously a tall tree, so measuring its height requires a little care. Today, I've approached this much as the ancients might have. I've used this method before with young children in elementary school science class visits, so it's easy. 

1. First, look at the tree and observe where its top is. Now, mark the place on the ground that is directly below this point. This is fairly easy to do with trees, and if you're worried, you can use a level to ensure you're looking straight up. In the case of our tree this is due west, about 6 feet. 
2. Now, find something you can look along that can be observed to be 45-degrees above the horizontal.  I used a carpenter's square and a torpedo level. A 45-degree angle is convenient, but any known angle will do, with some thought.
3. Raise the instrument a known elevation above the ground (I'm about 6 feet, elementary school kids are 3), and look up along the angle.  Walk closer or farther away until you can see the tallest point of the tree along the instrument when it is exactly 45-degrees above the horizon.  Make sure you can see the location below the top of the tree, that it is clear, and that it is relatively flat between your location and that spot.
4. Observe where you're standing and push the location back (away from the point under the tree) a distance equivalent to your height. (This last step necessary because you're correcting for the measurement above the ground.)  Mark this location.
5. Now, measure the distance between marks.

The Tree of Science, measured using this technique, is approximately 81 feet tall.  (I might have said approximately 80 feet, but you'd grant me only one significant digit; I'd like more!)

At three feet around, the girth of the tree is 11' 9" or, as we say in science, 3.556 meters.  Dividing by pi (3.1416), we get 1.132 meters or, as we say on blogs, a diameter of 3 feet 8.5 inches.  There are not many Sugar Maples in suburban areas that have a trunk this big.  It's hard to imagine that in this area some of the trees from the pristine forests were 6 feet in diameter!

Using a wonderful application for the iPhone, GPS Device Data, it's possible to determine the location of the Tree of Science to be 42.71197 degrees north and 73.20565 degrees east.  You can see a Google Maps view of this location here.  Notice there's less snow in Google Land.

The elevation (within 3 meters) is 240 meters, or 787 feet.  I worry about how this will change if the oceans rise.  Walk to work!  Save the elevations!  Those of you worried about our aging GPS satellite fleet, keep worrying.  Here's a GAO report on the predicted future of GPS.

A good friend, Bill Lenhart, arrived under the tree with an "Uh, Duane?"  I explained.  My colleagues, fortunately, have been well prepared for my idiosyncratic life.  We'll see most of them, sometime this year, in shots like this:

Bill Lenhart

As I was packing up after my measurements, I came across today's Tree of Science subject, some Fruit Loops placed, no doubt, by a squirrel-friendly member of our community.  Enjoy!