What you need:
- Ice cubes
- Wide glass jar. Mayonnaise jars work well.
- Plate
- Very hot tap water
How to:
- Put the ice cubes on the plate.
- Pour around 3 centimetres of very hot water into the glass
jar.
- Cover the jar with the plate and ice cubes.
Watch what happens.
Can you see droplets forming on the bottom of the plate? If you
tap the plate they will fall down like rain!
What's happening?
As hot air hits the bottom of the cold plate, water vapour in
the air condenses. The water vapour forms water droplets on the
bottom of the plate. The water droplets drip down like rain.
The same thing happens in the atmosphere. Warm, moist air rises.
The rising warm air meets colder air high in the atmosphere. The
water vapour in the warm air condenses and forms water droplets.
The water droplets fall to Earth as rain.
