2006-11-05 05:54:01 · 12 answers · asked by WWF Decade Impaired Fan 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Weather
Clouds are made of miniscule water droplets. When you consider how enormous clouds are (in volume), all those water droplets can add up to a very high weight. Think how heavy a glass of water is. Now let's try to extrapolate how much vapor that will make -- perhaps 5-10 cubic feet? Now multiply that number of glasses by how many cubic feet of space a cloud takes up...
"The water in a typical cloud can have a mass of up to several million tonnes. However, the volume of a cloud is correspondingly high, and the net density of the relatively warm air holding the droplets is low enough that air currents below and within the cloud are capable of keeping it suspended. As well, conditions inside a cloud are not static: water droplets are constantly forming and re-evaporating. A typical cloud droplet has a radius on the order of 1 x 10-5 m and a terminal velocity of about 1-2 cm/s. This gives these droplets plenty of time to re-evaporate as they fall into the warmer air beneath the cloud."
2006-11-05 06:06:47 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The water content (density) of clouds varies quite a bit, from about 1/10 gram per cubic meter to over 5 grams per cubic meter. It is even harder to come up with an "average" cloud volume, as this varies even more widely than water content.
Nonetheless, we can at least give a rough order-of-magnitude estimate. We can model the cloud as a sphere of, say, 1 kilometer radius. This gives a volume of about 4 billion cubic meters. Then if we use 1 gram per cubic meter as a "representative" water content, we get an estimate for the mass of the cloud of 4 billion grams, or 4 million kilograms, which is approximately 9 million pounds.
The bottom line: a cloud is a lot heavier than you might think!
2006-11-05 06:05:45 · answer #2 · answered by Michael 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
White cloud, my wampanoag neighbour is 165 lb give or take 2 lbs
2006-11-05 15:47:32 · answer #3 · answered by Dr. J. 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
At least, as heavy as the rains that they bear.
2006-11-05 05:58:25 · answer #4 · answered by Sam 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Pretty heavy when they have rain in them...good question! I have no idea!
2006-11-05 05:55:52 · answer #5 · answered by Shining Ray of Light 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
not very heavy since they are comprised of water vapour that condenses into water which causes rain
2006-11-05 05:57:06 · answer #6 · answered by gordon_benbow 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
is a cloud 1.100000 tons
2016-05-07 02:13:58 · answer #7 · answered by Lazira A 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
THEY ARENT HEAVY
2006-11-05 11:05:04 · answer #8 · answered by patsfan02019 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
i don't really think they way anything but don't actually know
2006-11-05 06:02:18 · answer #9 · answered by CraziChild4Lyfe 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
if you mean what is the density it is usually 5.3
2006-11-05 05:56:55 · answer #10 · answered by C-Lay "L" 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋