Question

How are clouds formed?

Answer 1

Clouds are made up of tiny drops of water or ice crystals that settle on dust particles in the atmosphere. The droplets are so small – a diameter of about a hundredth of a millimetre – that each cubic metre of air will contain 100 million droplets.Clouds form when the invisible water vapour in the air condenses into visible water droplets or ice crystals. There is water around us all the time in the form of tiny gas particles, also known as water vapour. There are also tiny particles floating around in the air – such as salt and dust – these are called aerosols.The water vapour and the aerosols are constantly bumping into each other. When the air is cooled, some of the water vapour sticks to the aerosols when they collide – this is condensation. Eventually, bigger water droplets form around the aerosol particles, and these water droplets start sticking together with other droplets, forming clouds.