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Difference between style and gnomon

The style is a linear shadow-caster device, which may include a point indicator (for example a pinhole). The linear edge has to be parallel to the Earth's axis of rotation, so it is often called a style-axis or polar style.

Calcad represents the style by a right-angled triangle if the sundial has a center, and if not by a rectangular trapezoid. In both cases, it is the shadow of the point most distant from the sundial plane, called the first end, that indicates the time with the hour curves.

In Calcad we use the term gnomon to refer to a style reduced to its first end: a rod vertical to the sundial plane.

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