 |
Why don't clouds fall out of the sky? |
Weather
Clouds are actually pretty heavy. If you weighed all the water that makes up a small cloud, it could weigh more than 500 cars! Imagine 500 cars floating though the sky!
The reason clouds can float, while cars would sink, is because the droplets of water that make up clouds are super small, and they can be spread out over miles! The droplets are so tiny that gravity doesn’t have much effect on them. Sure, they fall, but it happens very very slowly.
Also the air itself can help! Warm air rises in the sky, so often there is air pushing up against a cloud, helping it stay afloat.
Summer Fun!
On a hot day, have you ever gone outside in your bathing suit and played around a sprinkler on the grass? Water shoots out of the sprinkler with a lot of pressure so it travels very far and can easily water the lawn. Have you ever noticed that some of the water that gets sprayed turns into a mist? That mist is sort of like a cloud. The water can just hang in the air for a while until it eventually falls slowly or it evaporates!
Check it out next time you see a sprinkler, and make sure you have a grown-up there to watch you. You’ll see the mist (which is made completely out of water) float for a while, like a cloud!
If you live in a big city you may not have a sprinkler for your lawn, but you may be able to see one in a park, or even in grocery stores where they mist the fruits and vegetables to keep them moist!
