Learning Lesson: Atmospheric Collisions

Overview

Collision and coalescence are the processes by which cloud droplets grow large enough to fall as rain. You will suspend two ping pong balls in the stream of air supplied by a hair dryer. The balls will bump into each other, creating a clicking sound upon collision.

Procedure

1. Point the nozzle of the hair drier up and turn the fan to full power (You do not need any heat).
2. Place one ping pong ball into the stream of air.
3. Carefully place the second ping pong ball in the air stream.
4. Both balls will be suspended by the air and will occasionally collide with each other, making a clicking sound.

Discussion

Had the balls been raindrops, every time they collided, they would have joined each other, making a larger drop of water.

In rising (cooling) air, when the air has cooled to the dew-point temperature, water vapor begins to condense on cloud condensation nuclei, forming cloud droplets. Since there are many sizes of cloud condensation nuclei in any given air parcel, the cloud droplets that form will be different sizes as well.

As a result of the cloud condensation nuclei size distribution, some cloud droplets will be larger than the rest. Eventually, the largest cloud droplets will fall faster than the smaller droplets because large drops have faster terminal velocity than small drops (terminal velocity is the maximum velocity a falling object can attain due to forces such as friction). As these large cloud droplets fall, they collide with the small cloud droplets.

Many times, these droplets will stick together and become one large drop (coalesce). Eventually these droplets fall from the cloud as raindrops, reaching a maximum diameter of approximately 10 mm (0.39 inches). After a raindrop reaches 10 mm, it becomes so large that it breaks up into smaller drops.