Book 1, Question 69
Why Do Clouds Stay Up? They're Made of Tiny Drops!
Clouds look like fluffy cotton, but they are made of billions of tiny water droplets. Warm air rising from the ground helps hold those tiny droplets up. When the droplets join together and get too heavy, they fall as rain. The page says a fluffy cloud can hold hundreds of tons of water. With a grown-up, watch the steam from a boiling kettle rise, cool and turn into tiny droplets, just like a cloud.
From the book
Page from A Million Whys Book 1
More fun facts
- A cloud can weigh as much as an airplane, or even more.
- Its weight is spread over a huge space, so any small piece of cloud weighs very little.
- The rising air that made the cloud also helps hold it up.
- The air below a cloud is denser than the cloud, so the cloud floats on top of it.
- Cloud droplets are much tinier than drops from a leaky faucet. They are so small that rising air can keep them floating.
- Clouds look white and bright because their tiny droplets scatter sunlight.
- Warm air rises because it is less dense than cold air, a bit like a helium balloon floating up.
Sources: U.S. Geological Survey, Illinois
Questions kids ask
How heavy is a cloud?
A cloud can weigh tons, as much as an airplane, but that weight is spread across a huge space.
Why don't cloud droplets fall?
They are so tiny that the upward push of rising air keeps them floating.