With tones of blue and gray, where the sky meets the earth in an eternal dance, there’s a silent admiration for those towering giants, as clouds float effortlessly above us. Yet, a question arises: how do clouds float? It might seem obvious, but it’s not, and it’s not a silly question either. Each cloud carries its own story, written in the delicate dance of its shape. Some are nothing more than gentle whispers, thin white wisps barely grazing the sky, while others swell and ripple, but they all manage to float in the air for two reasons.
Why Do Clouds Float if They Are Made of Water?
Clouds are suspended up there like castles of feathers in the air. Slowly, they awaken from their slumber and stretch their cottony arms across the vast expanse of the sky. As the day progresses, so do the emotions they evoke. From children to adults, people capture the essence of clouds with strokes of paint and pen, and even in their imagination.
Cloud lovers undoubtedly appreciate the beauty of the waves they create in the sky, but beyond the visual appeal, these floating pillows are collections of water droplets and ice crystals. These droplets form around a cloud condensation nucleus, which could be a speck of dust or salt, making them weigh thousands of tons, according to Live Science.
So, why do clouds float? Clouds aren’t solid objects; they’re made up of clusters of water particles that, in the case of cumulus clouds, usually don’t exceed one-hundredth the size of a raindrop. They aren’t solid blocks, and that’s what makes them lighter. A single particle falling to Earth would travel so slowly that it would take about 12 days to descend from a height of 2,700 meters.
But they typically don’t fall. The reason is that the density of clouds is lower than the air surrounding them. A cloud is like an oil spill floating on the surface of water. Additionally, warm air rising from the surface helps keep these tiny molecules of water vapor or ice aloft in the sky. Until they come together and overcome resistance, the cloud stays afloat, dissolves, and leaves the sky blank for another painting.
So, water vapor is lighter than air, which is why it floats just like oil on water. And second, thanks to updrafts, water droplets, and ice crystals manage to stay suspended in the air. The cloud dissipates. Conclusion: a cloud can weigh thousands of tons, but a similar volume of air weighs much more. That’s why science says that a cloud is the visible result of vertical motion and the mixing of air with water, while droplets slowly fall to the ground.
This story was written in Spanish by Perla Vallejo in Ecoosfera.