At the centre of every raindrop is...?

Question

a grain of sand. I heard this but it can't be true can it?

Sand would be too dense to remain in the clouds, and it can't be evapourated like water so it wouldn't even get there in the first place.

Has anyone heard this before? Is there any truth to it?

Answer 1

a sparkle of light

Answer 2

due to the climate probably acid ..ie  acid rain all the way from your local china place

Answer 3

At the centre of every water droplet(many water droplets merge to become a raindrop),there is what is called a condensation nuclei.These are very tiny dust particles,smoke particles ,particles of salt,droplets of sulphuric acid,microscopic crystalline particles of silica and quartz which are already floating in the air.Water requires a non-gaseous surface to become liquid from the gaseous state and these nuclei serve this purpose,Hence water vapour condenses on these nuclei to become water droplets.Millions of  such water droplets

come together to form a cloud.If many such water droplets merge together within the cloud,then they become raindrops and they fall as rain due to weight.Hence every raindrop may contain such nuclei which will be very tiny and invisible.

Answer 4

not a lot

it is purely condensed water vapour

you may find that rain picks up residue from the pollution in the atmosphere

but if you collected rain directly from the cloud without any large air expanse, it should be pure water.

hope this helps =]

Answer 5

It's not completely impossible since rain is formed from clouds that are formed from the ocean (and the ocean contains mountains of sand).  I can't say that *every* raindrop has one, but I can believe that it happens.

Answer 6

It's a speck of dust, not sand.

You're right. If there were grains of sand up there, it would just rain sand with a bit of water occasionally.

Answer 7

never heard that!

there is hydrogen and oxygen and other gases and aquaous molecules in there

Answer 8

more like a spec of dust...