The Floating Giants: Why Don’t Clouds Fall?
SluvkDiscover the amazing science behind clouds in this engaging non-fiction story. Learn why these seemingly light, fluffy giants don't fall from the sky, how they are formed, and what different cloud shapes tell us about the weather.
6 - 8 ετών
I am lying on my back in the green grass, looking up at the bright blue sky. Big, white, puffy clouds are drifting past like giant pieces of cotton candy. They look so light and fluffy, like you could bounce on them. But I know a secret: those clouds are actually much heavier than they look!
I use my "magic scale" to weigh a medium-sized, white cloud. I am shocked! A single cloud can weigh over a million pounds. That is the same as 100 school buses or a giant herd of elephants floating over our house. If they are that heavy, why don't they just crash down to the ground?
I zoom in closer to the cloud with my super-lens. A cloud is not a solid object like a pillow. It is actually made of billions and billions of tiny water droplets or even tiny bits of ice. These droplets are so small that you would need a microscope to see just one of them.
I look at the ground beneath the cloud. The sun is heating up the dark soil and the roads. This warm air starts to rise, just like steam from a hot bowl of soup. This is called an updraft. These warm breezes are like giant, invisible hands pushing up against the bottom of the cloud.
I watch one tiny water droplet. Because it is so small and light, the air around it creates a lot of 'friction.' It is like dropping a tiny feather versus dropping a rock. Even if there was no wind, the droplet would fall so slowly that it would take forever to reach the grass.
I notice that the air inside the cloud is often warmer than the air around it. Just like a hot air balloon, warm air wants to stay up high. As long as the air is moving and staying warm, the cloud stays "buoyant," floating happily in the sky like a boat on the ocean.
I look even closer at a droplet of water. In the center, there is a tiny speck of dust or salt. These are called nuclei. Without these tiny "seeds" of dust, the water vapor in the air wouldn't have anything to grab onto to turn into a liquid droplet. Every cloud starts with a little bit of dirt!
I see the wind changing the shape of the clouds. Some look like thin, wispy hairs—these are Cirrus clouds, and they are made of ice! Others are flat and gray like a blanket—those are Stratus clouds. The big, puffy ones I saw earlier are called Cumulus. Each shape tells us what the air is doing up there.
Why are some clouds gray? I see a dark, heavy cloud moving in. It isn't white anymore; it's a deep, scary gray. This is because the cloud has become very thick with water droplets. The sunlight cannot shine through all those layers of water, so the bottom of the cloud looks dark and shadowy to us on the ground.
I watch a cloud grow taller and taller like a giant tower. This is a Cumulonimbus, or a storm cloud. The updrafts are pushing it up so hard that it reaches the very top of the sky. Inside, the water droplets are bumping into each other and getting bigger and bigger.
Finally, the "invisible hands" of the wind can't hold the weight anymore. The water droplets have grown into heavy raindrops. They are now too big to be pushed up by the warm air. Splash! They finally win the battle against the wind and fall down as rain, cooling the earth.
I watch the rain dry up as the sun comes back out. The water turns back into an invisible gas called vapor and travels back up to start a new cloud. This is the Water Cycle. The sky is like a giant, moving bridge that moves water all around the world, and clouds are the clever ships that carry it.
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Chasing the Drifting Clouds
Light‘s Hidden Rainbow
Weather Around Us for Beginning Readers
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The Stardust Traveler's Earthly Lights
Another day of sun
Deep Sea Creatures
Opposites are Everywhere
How Light Helps Us See the World
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