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Topic: Clouds  (Read 2259 times)

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Offline kevinkevin

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Clouds
« on: November 02, 2012, 02:10:49 AM »
  My professor asked me today to find out why clouds float.  Now I think I know the answer.  It's because the individual water droplets are so small that their individual falling velocities and extremely small.  Small enough so that rising air or just drafts in general are enough to keep them in the sky.  Internet research has concluded this to be true.  But, my professor said that he thinks it has something to do with static electricity in the air as well.  Where that difference in charge between the water and the air can help small bits of water and ice stay suspended easier.  The only math I was able to find on this was that for roughly spherical objects the mass is directly proportional to the radius cubed and that the downward facing side of the spherical object is directly proportional to the radius squared.  That first relation scares me.  How can that be stated if we don't know the density or mass of the object we are talking about?  Does anyone know of some equations to help with the concept of clouds?  But most important, does the above info look correct.  I never thought I would be second guessing myself about why clouds float but the possible static electricity influence is making me question myself because it makes perfect sense.  Thanks for your time!                     

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