Create your own cloud
If you could see a cloud up close and in great detail, you would see a lot of very small water droplets. In this experiment, you will be making those small water droplets yourself – in a glass jar!
Get started
Step 1
Pour a layer of hot water into the glass jar.
Step 2
Pour a layer of cold water into the glass dish and add some ice cubes.
Step 3
Ask an adult to strike a match. Hold the burning match just above the mouth of the jar, for as long as possible. When the match has burned up almost completely, drop it into the jar.
Step 4
Place the dish of cold water on top of the jar. What happens next?
Step 5
Remove the dish from the jar. What is happening now?
What did you discover?
You've made your own cloud inside the glass jar! Water vapour has formed above the hot water in the glass jar. But you can't see this vapour. When you put the cold dish on the jar, it cools the water vapour inside, which then condenses into very small water droplets, forming a cloud. And that's something you can see!
Tiny particles of soot from the burning match mix with the water vapour, making it condense even better. That's how clouds are created!
