How to Make a Basic Anemometer

What Materials Do You Need To Make An Anemometer?

You can make your anemometer to measure wind speed around you by easily assembling some primary materials.

Materials:

• Five small paper cup

• Hole punch

• Two straws

• Thick cardboard

• Pencil

• Pin

• Scissors

• Duct tape

• Three thin wooden dowels

• Empty water bottle

• Stopwatch

 Simple Steps To Make The Anemometer

• Make Holes In The Cups

Collect four or three paper or plastic cups, and use a single hole paper puncher to make a hole on the side of each cup. The made hole should be about ½ inch under the cup's rim.

• Make Holes In The Center Cup.

Use the fifth cup, and make two holes directly across each other, ½ inch underneath the cup's edge. The holes should be at the same level and even. Make two more holes ¼ inch from the edge of the cup, directly across from one another, and between the two first holes.

The cup should have four equally spaced and perpendicular holes near the edge of the center cup.

• Put The Bottom Hole In The Center Cup.

Punch a small hole in the bottom of the center cup using a pin. Then, use the scissors to make the hole a little bigger, so a pencil can stand in the hole loosely.

• Insert The Straw Into a Cup

Use a plastic drinking straw and fit it through the hole in one cup with one hole. Move about ½ inch of the straw inside the cup. Fix the straw inside the wall of the cup. Do this same process with another straw and another cup with one hole. So, you have two cups with two straws coming from their sides.

• Fit a Straw Through The Center Cup

Fit the straw coming from one of the cups through the two holes in the center cup. Once the straw comes out the other end of the center cup, fit it through another cup with one hole. When the straw is placed into another cup with one hole, allow ½ inch of the straw to move through to the inside of the cup. Fix the ½ inch of straw on the inside wall of the cup with the help of tape. Do this step with the other cup and connected straw.

• Insert The Pencil Into The Center Cup

Fit the eraser side of the pencil at the bottom hole in the center cup. Push the pencil upward as it meets the intersecting straws. Use a pin and push it through the two intersecting straws and into the eraser end of the pencil. This will make the axle and help keep the anemometer connected to the base.

Push the pin enough, so the straws stay connected with the pencil eraser. Also, it can spin the anemometer when exposed to wind.

Spin the straws several times in clockwise and counterclockwise directions. It helps the hole made by the pin in the straw slightly widen. This will let the anemometer rotate more freely in the wind.

 How Does a Homemade Anemometer Measure Wind Speed?

Hold your anemometer in front of a steady source of wind, like a fan, air vent, or the wind outside. Then, count the number of times the marked cup completely rotates around for one minute and multiply that value by four. This gives you several revolutions per minute (rpm)

. Repeat this process at different speeds. You should keep the fan at the same distance but change its speed. How did the rpm change when you held the device in front of the fan at a slow speed in comparison to a faster speed? Compared with the faster speed, do you think it rotates faster if you use your anemometer?

On a windy day, you can take the device outside and count how many revolutions it makes in one minute to measure the wind speed. Also, You can place your anemometer in different locations, such as an open area, a narrow passageway, a beach by the ocean, or a large lake. You can calculate and compare the wind speed in those places.

In addition, you can figure out how many revolutions each mile per hour of wind is. It is measured by calculating the circle's circumference created by the spinning cups. You can determine it by measuring the distance around the circle they make.

Then convert this value to miles by dividing the number of inches by 12 to get feet and then dividing that number by 5,280 (the number of feet in a mile). Multiply this number by rpm. At last, divide the result by 60 (to convert minutes to hours). Now you will have an approximation of the velocity at which the anemometer is rotating(in mph).

Here is a link to our huge inventory of digital anemometer at great prices.

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