Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I need to help my 9th grader build a wind wall....with reflectors so we can "see" the wind? He is having trouble explaining it to me and I can't find anything online....help. Its due Monday

Hello Wanda,

FIrst, welcome to the Science Buddies website!
It is great that your 9th grader is involved in building a wind wall: those can be very effective to be shielded from the wind.

I have to admit I was also a little bit puzzled by the "reflectors" to be able to see the wind, but here are a few ideas I came up with.

1/ you can build a wind wall, and place an apparatus to measure wind speed next to it (or even on either side so that you can measure the difference and test how much the wind wall is effective. You can also just place a pinwheel on the wind wall, it will give you an indication of the speed of the wind, but not a real measure of it.
Here is a science project link on wind walls: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p014.shtml
Here are sites on how to build an apparatus to measure wind speed (something called an anemometer):
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p008.shtml
http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/projects/anemometer.html
Here is a site to build your own pinwheel: http://www.janbrett.com/piggybacks/pigg ... pinact.htm

2/ Also, maybe your 9th grader thought of "deflectors" rather than "reflectors"? Deflectors will redirect the wind in another direction compared to the one it originally went. But I still don't see how the deflector itself could be used to "see" the wind.
Here is a link to a video where someone tried to put together a wind turbine with a deflector.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4JY1tL1Kwg

Well, I know I didn't exactly answer your question, but I hope this helps.

Don't hesitate to ask if you have any more questions,

Heloise
How to use the wind to produce energy
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p040.shtml