Researchers have calculated that the average cumulus cloud—that pretty, white kind you see on a sunny day—weighs 500,000 kg (or 11 million pounds! )
First of all, you should know that clouds are made up of many small water droplets, which means they must have mass
The next step is to then find out how thick your cloud is
Scientists have pointed out that the water density of this type of cloud is 1/2 gram of water per cubic meter
So, as Matt Soniak writes on Mental Floss , it’s about the size of a marble in a box big enough for you and a friend to sit in
Obviously, the density of other types of clouds will be much higher, but let’s focus on cumulus for now Once you have determined the density of your cloud, you need to see how big it is, this is a variable that varies a lot
Peggy LeMone, who has led several studies of cloud density at the US National Center for Atmospheric Research, calculated that the average cumulus is about a kilometer long and about the shape of a cube, so it’s about as wide as it gets it’s long Do the math on that, and you have a cloud with a volume of one billion cubic meters
Or, as LeMone explained to Soniak, think of it as 100 elephants
*Looks angry* For starters, this weight is not all in one spot, it is obviously spread over a large area
Clouds are also made up of water droplets that are sometimes so small that gravity has no effect on them
And because of the condensation, the clouds are really gray Perhaps even more surprising is that clouds are actually less dense than dry air, so it floats them, as Soniak explains
Learn more in the “It’s good to be smart” section below, and never think of clouds the same way again
width=”700″ height=”414″ allowfullscreen=”allowfullscreen” seamless=”seamless”>Resources: Mental health, it is good to be smart