Book 1, Question 69 · Video
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 toge
Read the full answer →What Crafty Clover says in this video
Intro
Hi! I'm Crafty Clover! Let's discover something amazing. Why do clouds stay up?
The Big Idea
Clouds look soft and fluffy, like cotton. But they're full of water! So why don't they fall? Here's the big idea: clouds are made of super tiny droplets, and rising air holds them up.
Tiny Drops
Step one: tiny drops, not cotton. Clouds are made of billions of tiny water droplets, too small to see on their own. It would take about a million cloud droplets to make just one raindrop!
Rising Air
Step two: rising air holds them up. Tiny droplets are so light, they fall super slowly, slower than a floating feather. Warm air rising from the ground pushes up on them, and holds the tiny droplets in the sky!
Heavy Drops
Step three: heavy drops fall as rain. Inside a cloud, droplets bump into each other, and join together into bigger drops. When they get too heavy for the rising air to hold up, they fall to Earth as rain. Splash!
A Closer Look
Let's zoom in on a cloud! From far away, a cloud looks like one big, fluffy shape. But up close, it's made of countless tiny droplets of water, or bits of ice. They're so small that even a gentle updraft can keep them floating.
Quick Facts
Quick facts! A fluffy cloud can hold hundreds of tonnes of water! That's as heavy as a herd of elephants. It floats because that water is spread out over a huge space, in teeny tiny drops. Fog is just a cloud that's touching the ground! Look up. Ask questions. Science is all around you!
Think Like a Scientist
Now, think like a scientist! Watch kettle steam, with a grown-up. Boil water in a kettle. Stay back from the hot spout! See the steam rise. It cools and turns into tiny droplets, just like a cloud! Be curious, and keep exploring!
Outro
Clouds stay up because their droplets are super tiny, and rising air holds them in the sky! Keep asking, keep exploring! Crafty Clover can be found on Amazon Books, Google Bookstore, and Apple Books. Available for purchase or download! Bye for now!