The purpose of hot wire anemometry is to measure the speed of an air stream. The classical method is
based on the measure of the value of a temperature dependant resistor inserted in a Wheatstone
bridge (Lomas 1986 Fundamentals of Hot Wire Anemometry (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)). In
this paper we exhibit the physics behind this method and show that by using a wire whose resistance
does not vary on the field of temperature explored (from 20 °C to 200 °C), it is however possible to
make accurate measurements. Finally, limitations of the method are discussed.