rain experiment

Has it ever happened to you that you want to go out and play, but it’s raining? If that’s the case and the rain has forced you to stay indoors, take the opportunity to learn a little about clouds and how rain falls with this simple experiment. Cheer up! You probably already have the materials for this science activity.

You will need the following materials:

✔ Shaving foam or hair mousse
✔ Glass
✔ Water
✔ Food coloring or liquid watercolor
✔ Dropper, pipette, or small spoon

Process

Fill your glass or jar ¾ full with tap water. Use the foam to create a cloud on the surface of the water, wait a minute for the foam to settle a bit. Next, add several drops of food coloring on top of the cloud of foam. As the cloud gets heavier from the dye, you will notice the dye falling into the water creating a rain-like effect.

Discussion

Clouds form when water vapor rises into the air. When the vapor hits cold air, it turns into water droplets or ice crystals. Those tiny water droplets floating in the air come together to form clouds. When clouds fill with so much water that they can’t hold any more, the water falls back to the ground as rain.

Through this experiment, you have created a model that represents the phenomenon of rain in a simplified way.