In the fast pace of modern life there is no time to look around, let alone the sky. And if you manage to connect with nature on a legal day off, get out to rest and lie down on the grass, then you can enjoy watching the blue sky and watch the “white-winged horses” running along it. Most often, a person considers the shape of flying clouds, fantasizing on this topic. But few people thought about what the average weight of the cloud ...
A bit of physics
To find out the mass of the most ordinary cloud, you need to know what it consists of. A cloud consists of concentrated water vapor, "suspended" in the atmosphere of the planet, which occurs due to evaporation from the surface of the earth and oceans. But still, the cloud often consists not only of steam, but also of drops of water or grains of ice, which make up the average weight of the cloud. All "filling" depends on the surrounding cloud temperature. An excessive amount of these very grains is a further cause for precipitation - the more they are, the heavier the cloud, the more likely the occurrence of rain, hail or snow.
In fact, many people consider clouds to be the same fog that we are used to seeing on earth. At least, this is how they were characterized by researchers, rising in balloons or falling into the clouds on the tops of the mountains. There is no doubt a similarity. Indeed, in the fog that falls to the ground, there are also particles of water, which is popularly called "drizzle". Otherwise, these are completely different phenomena that have different densities, the environment of occurrence, and the result: precipitation cannot occur from fog, but easily from a cloud.
How to measure the cloud?
It would seem how you can weigh what is hanging in the air or floating in the sky. But it turns out that this is quite simple. For scientists, of course. Indeed, in order to carry out the necessary calculations, you need to know exactly at what height the cloud is located from the surface of the earth. In addition to this parameter, you also need to know the amount of condensed air that the cloud consists of. From this source data and you can determine the average weight of the cloud. Unfortunately, only meteorologists have such data, therefore, calculations are carried out in special laboratories.
A bit in this tricky business can help the type of clouds. Meteorologists can distinguish all 10 types of clouds, each of which has its own density, distance from the earth's surface and composition. After all, the formation of each species occurs at different heights, where the temperature regime is different, and the speed of air flows. Possessing this data and modern tools to help determine cloudiness, one can give an answer to a very interesting question.
What is the weight of the middle cloud?
There are many versions and calculations that measure the weight of a snow-white cloud. But all the clouds are different, so there must be a certain formula that allows you to measure mass. We will not climb into the jungle of physical formulas, since an ordinary person watching the cloud will not even be able to find out the distance to it. We will trust specialists who claim that the average weight of the cloud is 800 tons. How this was calculated, one can only guess, but such is the scientific evidence.
At the same time, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, which is located in Colorado, argues that the easiest way to mass clouds, no matter how ridiculous it sounds, measured by elephants. They argue that it’s so easy even for a child to explain what it is about. Judging by their analogy, if an elephant weighs about 5 tons, then the weight of the middle cloud will be 100 elephants. As a result, we have 500 tons of vaporous matter, of which a tiny percentage is accounted for by water. Just imagine how much mass hangs above our heads almost daily. And this is just the average weight of the cloud. I don’t even want to talk about the mass of the black thundercloud . Probably, if you consider elephants, then the entire population of these animals will not be enough to calculate the clouds of a hurricane.
Conclusion
No one knows for sure who first came up with the idea of knowing the average weight of the cloud. One thing is known - thanks to meteorological knowledge this has become possible. Although the data are inaccurate, they differ in their results and calculation methods, but the curiosity of mankind is satisfied, and now such a question is unlikely to confuse anyone.