Weather forecasting is difficult and time consuming. In the service of meteorologists there are hundreds of meteorological stations equipped with various equipment. But you can predict the weather for the next day yourself, by making one simple device.
How to make a barometer from a light bulb
To make a barometer, you will need a burnt-out glass bulb with a large glass bulb, sandpaper, glue, drill or screwdriver, machine oil, copper wire 2-3 mm in diameter, ink from a ballpoint pen.
It is necessary to make a hole in the bulb at the junction of the base and the glass bulb. To do this, put a drop of machine oil on the place where you will drill the hole. Rub two sheets of sandpaper together. Spread the loose abrasive on machine oil and rub until a thick mass is formed. Take a piece of copper wire with a diameter of 2-3 mm and clamp it into the drill chuck. It will serve as a drill for us. Wrap a glass flask with a towel, and clamp the base of the light bulb between two wooden planks. Carefully drill a hole in the light bulb. When drilling, use minimal effort to prevent the glass bulb from cracking.
Through the drilled hole, squeeze some ink from the ballpoint pen into the flask. If there is no ink, then you can use a piece of chemical pencil lead, having previously ground it to a powdery mass. Pour tap water halfway into a glass flask. Stir until the ink or lead is completely dissolved if using a chemical pencil.
Take a rope and wind it around the base in a spiral, leaving a free end about 30 centimeters long. Apply glue to the base and leave the workpiece to dry for a couple of hours.
After the glue has dried, hang the barometer between the window frames. It is advisable to hang the barometer from the north side so that direct sunlight does not fall on it. If the windows face south, then hang the barometer at the very top of the window frame.
How to decode barometer readings
- If the inner walls of the glass flask are covered with small drops, then tomorrow is expected to be overcast, but no precipitation.
- If the walls are covered with droplets of medium size and dry stripes are visible between them, then partly cloudy is expected.
- If the walls of the flask are partially covered with large drops, then there will be short-term precipitation.
- If the drops have filled the bulb from the base to the border with the water, then there will be thunderstorms.
- If large enough drops are located only at the border with water, and the rest of the flask remains dry, then the thunderstorm front will pass 40-60 km away from you.
- If in rainy weather the walls of the flask became dry, then tomorrow the weather will be fine without precipitation.
You can use such a barometer only when the air temperature is positive. In winter, the barometer must be removed from the window frame, as the water can freeze and the glass bulb will crack.
