ANSWER IS FOR AN EIGHT YEAR OLD SO NOT TOO TECHNICAL THANKS
2007-12-22 07:00:00 · 10 answers · asked by helpiamtrapped 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Weather
Very good question. In a perfectly still atmosphere cloud droplets would fall and evaporate due to gravity. What actually happens in real clouds is that some droplets do fall and evaporate while others are formed when air is lifted and cooled. A cloud is always changing. It is like a supermarket where there are always roughly the same number of people in the market while some are leaving and new people are arriving.
One cloud that forms over mountains, a so called a lenticular cloud because it has the shape of a lens stands motionless over the mountain top while the lee edge is always evaporating and the windward edge is always forming.
2007-12-22 09:12:40 · answer #1 · answered by 1ofSelby's 6 · 1⤊ 2⤋
For an 8 year old. The drops of water in clouds are very tiny and light, like dust. So they drop very slowly through the air. Sometimes clouds (especially thunderclouds) have a wind in the center that blows upward, making the cloud higher and higher. With other clouds, the drops are created near the top where the air is cold and float slowly to the bottom of the cloud where they evaporate in warmer air. If you look at the edge of a cloud you will often see it is being made, or is evaporating away.
Fog is a cloud on the ground. Next time you have a fog, look carefully for the tiny drops, if you have a bright light it is easy to see them.
2007-12-22 15:59:31 · answer #2 · answered by mis42n 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Why have all the best answers got a thumbs down on here. Do the dummies want to win ? Honey that meteorologist has it right. The cloud does not hover, it is being remade all the time, as new wet air arrives at an altitude where it condenses.
2007-12-23 04:19:30 · answer #3 · answered by eastanglianuk1951 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Water is dissolved in the air throughout the atmosphere (that is, water molecules are intimately mixed between nitrogen molecules and oxygen molecules).
But air temperature decreases with increasing altitude and clouds are the visible evidence of the water/air mixture having a higher dew point than the air temperature at a particular height.
This means that there are now too many water molecules for all of them to remain completely dissolved in the air. Liquid water comes out of solution and forms tiny droplets (a cloud). If these get time to coalesce, they will form rain.
Below that height the air temperature will be higher, and in all likelihood above the dew point, and so the water molecules can remain completely dissolved (and therefore invisible in the air). Any falling rain drops from above may well be re-dissolved at this height before they can reach the ground.
Air that has a lot of water dissolved in it is less dense than dry air (so a low-pressure area often means rainy weather)
2007-12-22 15:38:56 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
Clouds contain tiny water droplets and millions of such droplets are there in a cloud.You can now imagine how small will be such a droplet.So they are very light and hence float in the air.Thousands of such water droplets combine together and grow as a rain drop which becomes heavier subsequently and falls as rain .
2007-12-23 11:14:23 · answer #5 · answered by Arasan 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
OK, I'll try to get to the point.
In order for clouds to form they have to condense on (form on top of) something. They form on pollution. Pollution are harmful stuff in the air. The pollution holds the clouds as it floats in the air.
2007-12-22 22:36:06 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
There are three conditions of water:
The vast condition: Ice
the fluent condition: Water
and the gas condition: Steam!
Clouds are like fog, gassy forms were you can go trough with your hand.
Clouds are made of water (and many other things) in the Gas condition.. when the climat is cold, like in the UK, this condition changes to the fluent condition => water.
Water can't stay in the air (too heavy) so it drops, and then you get rain!
2007-12-22 15:05:18 · answer #7 · answered by Silke Starkey 2 · 0⤊ 3⤋
Clouds are like steam that comes out of a kettle, only as they are higher up, they don't have to be boiling hot. Hold a cold plate over a steaming kettle for him, and show him how it really is just water.
2007-12-22 15:04:14 · answer #8 · answered by ? 7 · 0⤊ 3⤋
Like steam that comes from a kettle the cloud goes up and gets colder turning into rain and dropping.
2007-12-22 15:06:08 · answer #9 · answered by wolfmettle 3 · 0⤊ 3⤋
well as you know they turn to rain.. it's to do with heat and thermals.. that's how hand gliders stay up in the air so long..
heat rises basically, but it's to do with evaporation also =)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2Ncxw1xfck
2007-12-22 15:04:16 · answer #10 · answered by junglejungle 7 · 0⤊ 4⤋