Sunday, January 8, 2012

Make an Anemometer (Weather Instrument)

An ANEMOMETER measures WIND SPEED.




Science and Math Activity

Here are directions to make a simple Anemometer that students can use to measure Wind Speed.




Directions found at Royal Meteorological Society, UK http://www.rmets.org, www.nauticus.org and Explorit Science Center http://www.explorit.org




Materials
  • ping pong ball (I found a package at my local supermarket.)
  • protractor
  • string or fishing line
  • tape
  • scissors
  • piece of strong cardboard (optional)
  • science journal/notebook

Directions
  • Stick the protractor to the piece of cardboard with the tape. Have the straight side on the top. (OPTIONAL STEP)
  • Cut a piece of string approximately 12 inches in length.
  • Tape one end of the string to the ping pong ball.
  • Tape the other end of the string to the center point of the protractor. (see picture above)
  • Hold the protractor so that it is upside down.
  • The fishing line/string should hang straight down past the 90 degree mark on the protractor.
  • Observe as the wind pushes the ping pong ball and string.
  • Record the angle measurement into a science or math journal/notebook.
  • Use the Table below to convert the angle measurement into a wind speed.

Degrees - Speed (mph)

  90    -      0
  86    -      5
  75    -    10
  59      15
  43       20
  40    -    21

Instead of making an anemometer, you could use THE BEAUFORT WIND FORCE SCALE to describe wind speed based on observable land (or sea) conditions. Click on the link below.
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/beaufort.html


Enjoy learning about weather!


4 comments:

  1. Okay that is cool. I didn't know it was possible to make a homemade wind gauge, but I guess that shouldn't surprise me it is possible.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I wish I had read this post earlier!! My son has been studying weather at school. We made a simple anemometer, but not one that we could gauge actual wind speed. We'll have to try your version!

    ReplyDelete

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