… All day long!
Do you know what the windmill sails do by going round and round all day? Or how do they go around?
Have you ever run into the wind carrying a paper fan on a stick? Notice how the fan starts whirring the faster you run?
You can think of a windmill as a gigantic paper fan whose sails rotate when wind blows through them.

Like a paper fan, a windmill consists of a tall building, with sails at the top. Inside the building, you will find a machine that is connected to the sails and rotates with it. It is called a ‘mill’.
You can climb up the building using the steep stairs inside and reach a balcony above. Watch the sails go by up close from here. But be careful as the sails are big and move pretty fast. If you ever saw a working windmill you would notice a white powdery substance coming out of the mill. Do you recognize it? It is flour! Flour, which makes bread and pizzas. A windmill grinds wheat into flour.

But to see one in action, you would have to go back in time, about 200 years ago. Even though, many of the old wooden mills are in working condition, they no longer are in use.
So why do we still build windmills?

Today’s modern windmills are used to generate electricity using wind-power. Such windmills are called Wind Turbines.
You may notice that the wind turbines are much taller and thinner than traditional windmills. It consists of a tall column topped by gigantic blades, like a ceiling fan turned side-ways. This design helps them catch wind at higher speeds to generate more electricity. Some people find the metallic wind turbines pretty ugly compared to the old wooden windmills.
Yet, the wind turbines serve an important purpose for us. They generate clean usable energy to light up our homes.