Scientists have calculated that the average skin cloud – which is that beautiful, white fluffy kind you see on a sunny day – weighs an incredible 500,000 kg (or 11 million pounds! )
First, you need to realize that clouds are made up of many tiny water droplets, which means they must have some mass
The next step is to calculate how dense your cloud is
Scientists have found that the water density of this type of cloud is about 1/2 gram of water per cubic meter
So, as Matt Soniak writes on Mental Floss, that’s about a marble’s worth of water in a box big enough for you and a friend to sit in
Clearly, the density of other cloud types would be much higher, but let’s stick with the accumulation for now Once you figure out the density of the cloud, you need to figure out how big it is, a measurement that also varies widely
Peggy LeMone, who directed much of the cloud weighing research at the US National Center for Atmospheric Research, calculated that the average nodule is about a kilometer in diameter and roughly shaped like a cube, so it’s as tall as it is wide the math on that, and you have a cloud with a volume of one billion cubic meters
Or, as LeMone explained it to Soniak, think of it as 100 elephants
*Looks up nervously*For starters, this weight isn’t all in one point, it’s obviously spread over a huge space
Clouds are also composed of water droplets that are sometimes so small that gravity barely affects them
And because of condensation, the clouds are actually a rebellion Perhaps even more surprisingly, clouds are actually less dense than dry air, so it keeps them floating, as Soniak explains
Find out in the episode of It’s Okay To Be Smart below and never think about cloud the same way again
width=”700″ height=”414″ allowfullscreen=”allowfullscreen” seamless=”seamless”>Sources: Mental Floss, it’s okay to be smart