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You are here: Home / Science / Why Does a Weather Vane Point To the Direction the Wind Is From and Why Are They Shaped Like a Rooster?

Why Does a Weather Vane Point To the Direction the Wind Is From and Why Are They Shaped Like a Rooster?

March 5, 2020 by Karen Hill

The arrow on a weather vane points into the wind.

If the arrow is to the north, the wind is from the north.

The tail of the weather vane is heavier than the nose, and in some but not all weather vanes, there is some type of flap that moves as the wind blows so that the vane is always aligned with the wind.

Weather vanes have been used for centuries, perhaps even millennia.

Many are in the form of roosters, an old symbol related to their use on Christian church steeples, high up so that everyone could see where the wind was blowing.

The rooster is symbolic of the apostle Peter’s denials of Christ, which Jesus had predicted would occur three times before the cock crowed.

It signifies how easily faith could be swayed, like a weather vane in the wind.

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Filed Under: Science

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

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