Wind and moving air
Physics · Early Years · The School
Air is always there
Air fills this whole room, right now. You cannot see it. You cannot usually feel it, when it is still. But it is there, all around you, all the time. Wave your hand through the air in front of your face. You just moved some.
Wind is air that moves
A fan blows air across the room. A hairdryer does the same, but warmer. That moving air is a kind of wind, made indoors. Outside, the Sun and the whole sky make wind on a much bigger scale. It is still just air, moving.
You can see what it does
You cannot see the wind itself. But you can see what it DOES. Leaves shiver and shake on a windy day. A flag flaps and snaps. A pinwheel spins round and round. Watching these things tells you the wind is there, even without seeing it.
Hold a pinwheel toy still in front of you. Blow on it gently. It turns slowly. Blow hard instead. It spins fast, a blur of colour. Now stand outside on a breezy day and hold it up, without blowing at all. It spins by itself, just from the wind. Gentle blowing, hard blowing, real wind outdoors — three different strengths, but all of them are exactly the same thing: moving air.