Can you think of any problem that might occur when estimating height using the shadow, pencil and trig method?

Question

Can you think of any problems that occur and make the results inaccurate?

Answer 1

the length of the pencil's shadow depends on where the light comes from

for example, if the light comes from above then there will be no shadow
and if the light comes from the side, the shadow can be very long or short


don't know if this answers your question

Answer 2

The ground might be very uneven
You might have a cloudy day
A pencil is very short compared to, say, a tall building. if you're measuring something very tall, and your measurement with the pencil is slightly off, your error with the very tall object will be very large in proportion. better to compare the shadow of something taller, but still known, such as a flagpole.

Answer 3

If you are outside using the sun and spend too much time surveying. The movement of the sun will cause a problem.

Answer 4

Using trigonometry, you will always have a good estimate. Don't forget, it's only an estimate, not exact.