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A wind vane has a horizontal bar (sometimes it's a tube or shaft), which is mounted upon a circular pivot point that allows the bar to freely spin around in a horizontal plane pointing in any direction of the wind. A tail is placed at one end of the bar and the other end is used as the direction indicator (the pointer). The tail has more wind resistance than the small pointer, so a wind will always force the tail. This points the indicator (the pointer) into the wind to correctly show the wind direction. Often this pivot point is placed just slightly close toward the point than the tail. This adds leverages to the mechanical energy of the wind force placed upon the tail, which allows the indicator to correctly point into the wind even with low wind speeds. A windsock, often seen at airports or near helicopter pads points the opposite way of a weather vane - a windsock points into the direction where the wind is going, not from where it came like the wind vane.
The wind vane rotates freely on a veritical rod and becomes aligned by the direction of the wind.

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12y ago

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