Anemometer is blowing on the back of the cup on the opposite end of the cross. Since a hollow hemisphere has a drag coefficient of .38 on the spherical side and 1.42 on the hollow side, more force is generated on the cup that is presenting its hollow side to the wind. Because of this asymmetrical force, torque is generated on the axis of the anemometer, causing it to spin. Theoretically, the speed of rotation of the anemometer should be proportional to the wind speed, because the force produced on an object is proportional to the speed of the fluid flowing
Anemometer anemometers are also used, wherein the velocity is inferred by the time length of a repeating pulse of current that brings the wire up to a specified resistance and then stops until a threshold "floor" is reached, at which time the pulse is sent again. Hot-wire anemometers, while extremely delicate, have extremely high frequency-response and fine spatial resolution compared to other measurement methods, and as such are almost universally employed for the detailed study of turbulent flows, or any flow in which rapid velocity fluctuations are of interest. An industrial version of the fine-wire anemometer is the thermal flow meter,