• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Zippy Facts Logo

Zippy Facts

Interesting Random Facts

  • Animals
  • Culture
  • Firsts
  • Food
  • Geography
  • Health
  • History
  • Inventions
  • Language
  • Mythology
  • Odds
  • People
  • Religion
  • Science
  • Space
  • Universe
  • World
You are here: Home / Science / Why is a rain gauge wider at the top and narrower at the bottom?

Why is a rain gauge wider at the top and narrower at the bottom?

May 21, 2020 by Karen Hill

A rain gauge shaped like a megaphone is not the standard shape meteorologists use, but it should work if it has the correct ratios between the cross-sectional area at the top and the part of the gauge that actually collects and measures the water.

If this gauge was a straight-sided cylinder that did not narrow toward the bottom, it would be very difficult to measure small amounts of precipitation.

It would require the bottom inch, for example, to be divided into 100 separate markings for hundredths of an inch, and most rainfall is much less than an inch.

Meteorologists commonly use a gauge that consists of a small straight-sided cylinder within a bigger cylinder. The rain is collected by a funnel at the top of the smaller cylinder, which is only a fraction of the diameter of the bigger cylinder.

The inner tube is open at the bottom. The markings on the outer tube reflect a ratio of ten to one, so that an inch of rain would reach a mark ten inches from the bottom.

Related Facts

  • Why Is an Image In a Mirror Inverted Left To Right But Not Top To Bottom and How Is a Mirror Image Reversed?
  • Why Does a Mirror Reverse Things Right To Left But Not Top To Bottom?
  • What Is the Order of the Colors In a Rainbow From Top To Bottom?
  • How Large Is Brazil's Rain Forest and How Many Insect Species Live In the Amazon Rain Forest?
  • How Can You See Stars and Planets In Daylight From the Bottom of a Deep Well and Why?
  • Why Is the Bottom of the Sea Known as "Davy Jones's locker" and Where Did the Expression Come From?

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.

Previous Post: « What is cloud seeding and how does it help make it rain?
Next Post: Why are there more thunderstorms in the Rocky Mountains in the summer? »

Footer

Follow

  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • GitHub
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Medium
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Categories

Accomplishments Animals Culture Firsts Food Geography Health History Inventions Language Mythology Odds People Religion Science Space Universe World Your Body

About

Zippy Facts empowers the world by serving educational content that is accessible to everyone.

A tribute to growing up, zippyfacts.com showcases interesting and unusual facts about the world.

Our mission is to use technology to facilitate knowledge transfer and sharing.

Copyright © 2021 Zippy Facts

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy