Leroy Brown, age 9, of Phoenix, Arizona, for his question:

What is an anemometer?

A meter is something for measuring and anemone was an old word for the wind. Now you have guessed what an anemometer is supposed to do. The weatherman uses it, of course, to measure the speed of the breezes. Gentle breezes are gentle because they blow slowly. A gale wind blows fast with mighty force. There are several different gadgets for measuring the winds and all of them are anemometers.

Most weather stations use a popular model that looks like three metal balls on a metal post. Actually they are cups shaped like hollow half balls. They are set so that when the wind catches them they whirl around and around. There is a fixture to show hoc fast they spin    and this gives the speed, or strength, of the wind. There are fancier models that keep a record of when the wind changes its speed. All of them measure the speed of the wind to tell how strong it is.