If you are reading this during your UK staycation, there’s a good chance it’s bucketing down. Or at least drizzling. If you are on holiday in the Med, you are probably uncomfortably hot. Puzzled by the weather? Try these weather puzzles:
1. The weather forecast
It is raining at midnight. Will we have sunny weather in 72 hours?
2. Stripy socks
Wind socks show wind direction. But why are they usually striped?
A wind sock in standard colours.
Photograph: Hollandse Hoogte/Shutterstock
3. Windy Wendy
Wendy cycled 10 miles in 30 minutes with the wind in her back. When she returned against the wind, the trip took 40 minutes.
On a windless day, how long would it take her to cycle 10 miles?
4. Barometer brainstorm
A weather forecaster’s favourite instrument is the barometer, which measures air pressure. According to urban legend, a physics professor once asked his students how to measure the height of a building using a barometer.
The obvious answer is to measure pressure at the bottom and the top: the change in pressure can be used to deduce the relative altitudes. But that wasn’t the answer he was looking for. He wanted more inventive solutions. As do I.
How might you use a barometer to measure the height of a tall building?
Please post your suggestions to question 4 below the line. The more creative and absurd, the better.
PLEASE NO SPOILERS TO QUESTIONS 1, 2 AND 3.
Usually, I reveal the answers to my puzzles at 5pm UK, which is ten hours after I set the questions.
Today, however, I’m trialling a new format, in which the solutions are posted AT THE SAME TIME. If you want to read the solution now, please click the link here.
I set a puzzle here every two weeks on a Monday. I’m always on the look-out for great puzzles. If you would like to suggest one, email me.
I give school talks about maths and puzzles (online and in person). If your school is interested please get in touch.