Curious Kids:

how do the
clouds stay up
in the sky?
ZAKKY MARDHOTILLAH
(19231104)

Source:

H
https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-bagaimana-a
wan-bisa-tetap-melayang-di-angkasa-142071
.

CLOUDS??
?
What are clouds...?

How such a thing like clouds can stay up

in the sky...?
"WHAT IS something we called cloud?

A cloud is water vapour in

the atmosphere (sky) that
has condensed into very
small water droplets or ice
crystals that appear in
visible shape (wikipedia)

A cloud is made of water drops or ice crystals floating in the

sky. There are many kinds of clouds. Clouds are an
important part of Earth's weather.

source: (NASA Knows! (Grades K-4))

how do the clouds stay up in the sky?

There are three pieces to this puzzle :

1. Gravity ( Physics)
2. Elements ( Chemistry )
3. Temperature ( Physics )
how do the clouds stay up in the sky?

1. GRAVITY ( physics )

Like everything on this planet, the tiny droplets that make up a

cloud are drawn towards the Earth by gravity. But these droplets
are so small that it’s hard for them to push past all the air beneath
them. This means that they don’t fall very fast at all – in fact, only
about one centimetre per second. And any wind blowing upwards
can carry the droplets back up.
clouds are made up of tiny droplets of water, which are hardly affected
by gravity
how do the clouds stay up in the sky?

2. Elements
(chemistry )

Elements are the building blocks of all things –

just like the smallest pieces of Lego, which you
use to build bigger and more complex objects.
 The periodic table is
organised so that the lightest
element of each row is
always on the left. Hydrogen
is the lightest of all elements,
so you’ll find it at the top left.
As you move along each row
from left to right, the
elements get heavier and
heavier.
Dry air is mostly made up of two gases, nitrogen and
oxygen

OXYGEN:
O = 16
O2 = 32 (always
go in pairs)
NITROGEN:
N= 14
N2= 28

As soon as we add water (H₂O) to the air, things get interesting. A water molecule is
made up of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. Remember how hydrogen is
the lightest element? Well, a single water molecule weighs just 18. So it’s actually
lighter than a molecule of nitrogen or oxygen. That’s why moist air is lighter than dry
air
 how do the clouds stay up in the sky?
3. TEMPERATURE
(physics)
The next piece of the puzzle is temperature. As a rule, warm air rises up, while
cold air sinks down. When water in
the air is warmer, it’s more likely to be a gas. When it’s cooler, it prefers to
take a liquid form, such as cloud droplets, rain, hail or snow.

Well, when gas turns into liquid, the exact opposite happens: it actually gives
off heat.
This means that the cloud droplets are now surrounded by a tiny blanket of
warm air. And what does warm air do? It rises! Not very far, though, because
the air will cool again as it goes up.
Now our puzzle is complete:
clouds are made up of tiny
droplets of water, which are
hardly affected by gravity,
embedded in moist air, which is
lighter than dry air. And they’re
surrounded by tiny warm blankets
of air, which lift them up towards
the sky. That’s how clouds
weighing billions of tonnes can
stay afloat up in the sky.
 Thank you
You can Find me at @zmrdhtllh