What "other side" are you talking about? How do we know where the wind is blowing from? We can only know how real windmills work in normal conditions and assume the ones in Nirn work the same. If Nirn has other physics laws then why would they bother to make the windmill look exactly like the ones on Earth?

A few people have commented that it doesn't matter which way the wind is blowing, and that it's the sails that determine the direction.


What if having physics is a little detail, and the fact things roll up hills to their tops rather than down hills to their bottoms is a nit-pick? To the windmill experts, the direction it's spinning is probably just as silly as things rolling up hills on their own.

love this thread

http://www.windmillworld.com/windmills/faq.htm

Which way do windmill sails rotate?
Despite masses of web pages that claim otherwise, and plenty of quizbooks as well, there are examples of windmills whose sails rotate clockwise, and examples that rotate anticlockwise.

The direction is always taken from in front of the mill, and looking at the sails, the solid edge is the leading edge. An example of nearby similar mills whose sails rotate in opposite directions can be seen in Cambridgeshire at Bourn (anticlockwise) and Great Gransden (clockwise).

This picture of Windmills on Saaremaa, Estonia shows a pair of mills whose sails rotate in opposite directions.

Unless this atrocious and lazy mistake is FIXED before May 11th, 2011, I - as long as everyone I know who has EVER played a TES game - hearby SWEAR!!!

...

That this will have absolutely no impact on our decision to purchase the game or not?

I was so happy not knowing this. Now if this or other future game do it wrongly it will itch me a lot :sadvaultboy: .

EDIT: On the other hand, if one they I decide to build a mill, this knowledge could be pretty handy .

Well, except, you would build it to point into the wind during the day, (to grind grain during daytime, of course) which would be inland, since the land heats up from the sun faster than the ocean. (and the excess hot air expands and blows towards the ocean) Assuming that is not a peninsula it's on, it is pointed inland, and its daytime, therefor the wind would be blowing towards the sea, making it turn the incorrect direction for which way the blades are slanted.

I guess that is why I have a difficult time understanding all of this. I live between three mountain ranges in interior Alaska. 350 miles from the nearest ocean where the wind from the ocean could never drive the winds that come here. We have horrific winds at my home. The wind comes down from any three of those mountain ranges. So, again...how do you know which direction the wind is blowing from in this video. I think I need a more detailed explanation and would surely appreciate it.

Sure. Allow me to elaborate as I believe I have arrived at a logical conclusion. First, we will establish the facing of the windmill. You would want the wind coming from the direction the main shaft (going from the center, to the blades) is pointing, that way the building doesnt block 2/3 of the wind and lower your power. Also, we can agree it appears the ocean is behind the windmill in this video, correct? With as much as we can see, thats what it looks like. Second, let me establish the direction wind would blow. We all agree that hot air expands, becoming less dense than cold air, ok. We also agree that due to the closer proximity of particles, solid objects would absorb heat faster than a liquid. Therefor, water (the liquid, obviously) would heat more slowly than land (the solid) when the sun rises and casts it's heat energy upon the Earth. (This also creates the opposite effect when the sun sets at night, but nobody grinds wheat at night so that is irrelevant) This creates warmer, expanding air over the land, whilst the air over the water remains cooler and more compacted. This makes uneven pressure. The pressure overland is far greater than over water, so what occurs? Wind. Wind is the equaling in pressures between different regions. Therefor, the higher pressure area of the land would blow towards the less dense area over the water, attempting to obtain equilibrium. This creates a wind that blows out towards the water. Which is behind the windmill. Therefor the wind is blowing directly into that windmill (or at least from that general side) coming from the camera, going towards the windmill and backround.

However, now that I look at it, the blades aren't even tilted. So I dont think that windmill would function very well at all. But it depends. Is the intent to catch wind like a sail, or be pushed a certain direction by it like a propeller blade? If its a blade they should be tilted, if a sail, there should be cloth over it.

Either way its a crapshoot and something needs to be done about it. But we have at least established that the wind is blowing towards it. >.>

If they do not fix the windmill, I will not buy the game. As simple as that.

I guess what you are belivening to be the ocean I thought was a mountain stream/river. I just played it back and forth about ten times for both myself and my hubby and a friend and they are now as confused as I. I don't see an ocean. I see a valley with a rapid river, sort of like where I live. Now I must go watch it another 10 times with both your and my information and see where it leaves my feeble mind.

If you look at it paused RIGHT before it fades to the next clip, it appears to be a very large body of still water, almost like a small lake. Then out past the arch is a harbor, on the edge of what looks like the opening into a giant body of water, presumably the ocean. Was it also not confirmed which towns the town on the cliff and the backround harbor town were? They were by the ocean, I would have to go look up what we thought they were. But thats what it looks like to me, far off several miles in the backround is the ocean that the nearby water is connected to. Remember the scale here, the cliffs sticking out has alot of a town on top of it, so that nearby water is very wide, possibly several hundred feet.

In the trailer the sails, what are called the trailing edge, are leading. That means one of two things: either the wind is hitting the blades from behind or the wind is hitting the blades from the front and the angle of the blades is wrong. The whole point is that the trailing edge should not be leading.

If the wind is coming from the front then the angle of the blades is wrong. If it's from behind then the angle is correct, but the windmill should be rotated so that the wind hits the front of the blades. If it isn't possible to rotate the windmill then the design is wrong, and it should probably have blades that are of equal width. (there are exceptions though...you could remove the sails of some windmills if the wind is blowing the wrong direction)

Or the scene is flipped/mirrored for trailer purposes?

That still wouldn't change the fact that the trailing edge is leading.

yep, in which case the ingame version is correct....

edit: or is it? some people seem to think that it wouldn't matter....I have a hard time visualizing it. If it were flipped wouldn't that just mean that the trailing edge is still leading, but in the opposite direction? I duno

lol you can try with a dvd and a mirror

Lovin' this thread...who'd have thought you could learn so much about physics and engineering.

My thinking has always been about the sails leading the blade into the wind, not about the direction of the rotation. I looked on youtube and could never find a video of the sails leading into the wind. Does that ever happen in reality? I think even if the video was flipped, it would still have the sails leading into the wind, just going in the opposite direction.

:tes:

How much does this bother you?

Just curious but were windmills built so the windmill would rotate 1,000+ years ago? I think they just screwed up, but I have no idea if windmill technology has improved much since a similar tech level shown in the elder scroll games.

Exactly. Why should you be crushing the spirit of the poor windmills? They work all day to make your flour and you say they are backwards. Someday, the windmills will rise up and have a revolution, then windmill control you!

Not too much, but enough to want it fixed. I didn't notice it in the trailer, but now that people pointed it out...

ZOMG! BETHASDUH MESSD UP DE WINDMILL! EVRY1 BOYCOTT THIS GAEM!


*ahem*
Let it go. It's a freaking windmill.

Not sure what you've been smoking, but it goes the correct way. I'd like to hear what makes you think otherwise though. Windmills are affected by the wind, it could go either way depending on how the rotary blades are angled. But the video shows no such angle either one way or the other. In fact, the wind mill doesn't even have blades, it has poles with bars sticking out - which is basically a lot more relevant for criticism than the direction it's going.

The windmill is correct until proven otherwise.

That has been what is confusing me. I think if there is any complaint about it, it should be that the sails look flat which would not do much to capture any wind.