Measuring weather

Make your own anemometer!
You can make your own barometer with the following materials:

• five paper cups
• two straight plastic straws
• a pin
• scissors
• a sharp pencil with an eraser
• small stapeler

Take four of the paper cups and using the hole punch, punch one hole in each, about 1 half inch below the rim. Take the fifth cup and punch four equally spaced holes about a quarter inch below the rim. Then punch a hole in the center of the bottom of this cup.

Next, take one of the four cups and push a straw through the hole. Fold the end of the straw, and staple it to the side of the cup across from the hole. Repeat this procedure for another one-hole cup and the second straw.

Slide one cup and straw assembly through two opposite holes in the cup with four holes. Push another one-hole cup onto the end of the straw just pushed through the four-hole cup. Bend the straw and staple it to the one-hole cup, making certain that the cup faces in the opposite direction from the first cup. Repeat this procedure using the other cup and straw assembly and the remaining one-hole cup.

Align the four cups so that their open ends face in the same direction (clockwise or anticlockwise) around the center cup. Push the straight pin through the two straws where they intersect inside the center cup. Push the eraser end of the pencil through the bottom hole in the center cup. Push the pin into the end of the pencil eraser as far as it will go. Your anemometer is ready to use!

To find the wind speed, determine the number of revolutions per minute. Next calculate the circumference of the circle (in meters) made by the rotating paper cups. Multiply the revolutions per minute by the circumference of the circle (in meters per revolution), and you will have the velocity of the wind in meters per minute.

Next page   -> in situ, surface observations, precipitation

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