Just how soft is ...?

Question

... a cloud, anyways????

Answer 1

thistledown      a baby's bottom     a mother's heart  

a grandmother's  voice    a lover's touch   a thief's foot step

Answer 2

a cloud is not soft. you go right through it when you hit it. it is just the sky elevation changing

Answer 3

For a cloud to be soft, something must be able to land on it.  That object must have a density slightly more than the cloud, but slightly less than the air surrounding it.  So, a second, rising, cloud with that density could "land" on it from below.  I'm sure the impact would be as 'soft' as you could wish for.

Answer 4

Clouds are not soft, they are wet.

Clouds can have a large range of mass per volume,

depending on how large and numerous the cloud droplets

or ice crystals are that are in them.  However, they

do not really weigh anything, if by weighing you mean

putting them on a scale to weigh.  Weight is defined

as the force of an object upwards as the result of

gravity.  Since clouds, in a sense, defy gravity, they

do not have weight.

Clouds are less dense than dry air of the same volume.

That is why they do not fall from the sky.  Upwards vertical

motions in the atmosphere also help to counteract

the weight of the droplets or ice crystals, helping to

hold them up (or make them rise even) in the atmosphere.

You can learn more about cloud mass and composition at

the USGS page at

http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/watercyclea...

David R. Cook

Meteorologist

Climate Research Section

Environmental Science Division

Argonne National Laboratory