1Two things to know about air and heat
Hot air rises — and land and water soak up sun differently
You only need these two ideas. Watch each one:
Hot air floats up, cool air slides in
Warm air is lighter, so it rises. Cooler, heavier air rushes in underneath to take its place. That sliding-in air is what we feel as wind.
Land heats fast, water heats slow
Same sun on both. The sand gets hot quickly. The water barely warms up — it needs way more sun to change even a little.
2The two players
Fast-changing land vs slow-and-steady sea
Give them the same sun all day and all night. Their temperatures behave in totally different ways:
Heats fast, cools fast
By afternoon it's baking hot. By the middle of the night it's gone cold. It swings up and down a lot.
Slow and steady
It hardly changes at all. Warm-ish in the day, warm-ish at night — it stays close to the same temperature.
3Your turn — shine the sun
Turn up the sun and watch which side heats up
Drag the sun brighter. Watch the land heat up fast while the sea barely budges — and watch the air above the hotter side start to rise.
4The big test — push time from day to night
Run a whole day and night, and watch the breeze 🧭
Now you control time, not the sun. Tap forward through morning, noon, evening, and deep night. But first, one guess.
Guess before you run the day
Why does the coast breeze blow inland by day but out to sea at night?