1.

TITLE

Cloud In A Bottle

2.Principle

There are only three ingredients required to make a cloud: water (moisture), condensation particles,
and a drop in temperature to the saturation point or pressure change. For realworld clouds to form,
a lifting mechanism is also required.

Water: As a part of the water cycle, the water is evaporated from the earth's surface in preparation
for making a cloud.

Condensation particles are required for the water vapor to have something to condensate onto.
Examples of such particles are dust, clay, soot, sea salt, pollen, and aerosols. For this experiment, we
will use smoke as our condensation particle.

Drop in temperature: Warm air can hold more water vapor than cold air, so dropping the
temperature causes water to condense. In this experiment, we will use changes in pressure to
change the temperature. Warmer temperatures yield higher pressure, for the water molecules
become excited as result of the heat. Therefore a drop in pressure would result in a drop in
temperature.

Water vapor condenses on condensation particles when the temperature cools to a saturation point.
When the clouds we see in the sky are formed, an updraft (air moving upward) pushes water vapor
upward. The pressure decreases as the air rises higher, resulting in a temperature drop. When the
saturation point (or dew point) is met, the water vapor condenses on condensation particles in the
atmosphere and forms clouds.

Ingredients:

plastic bottle with cap (fairly flexible e.g. from most soft drinks)

isopropyl alcohol

matchstick

cycle pump

Procedure
1. Pour 10 to 20 millilitres of antispetic medicinal rubbing alcohol (isopropyl alcohol) or methylated spirits into an
empty soft drink bottle

2. Rotate and wiggle the bottle to swirl the alcohol around for 10 or 20 seconds to evaporate it .

3. Light the match, then blow it out so it smokes .Suck the smoke into the bottle by squeezing the bottle gently a
few times .

4. Insert the pump to form a seal between the poster putty and the neck of the bottle. Pump air into the bottle until
it feels 'full'.

5. Remove the pump swiftly so that the air pressure inside the bottle drops suddenly and rapidly. The bottle will
instantly fill with a dense, opaque white fog.

6. reinsert the pump and re-pressurise the bottle while it is still full of dense white fog. As you pump, the thick
white fog vanishes right before your eyes and the air turns crystal clear.

3. oberservations

Like water, isopropyl alcohol evaporates to form an invisible vapour. Like water vapour, that invisible
isopropyl alcohol vapour can condense again to become visible liquid isopropyl alcohol. If that happens in
mid-air (as opposed to on a surface), the tiny droplets produce what we call a cloud (or fog).

While the temperature and pressure inside the bottle remain steady, nothing much happens. When you start
pumping air in, the internal pressure rises and the air inside the bottle becomes noticeably clearer. When you
suddenly release the pressure, something rather stunning and surprising happens. A dense white cloud forms
instantaneously inside the bottle.

The first thing to remember is that pumping air into a bicycle or car tyre increases its temperature. You might
have noticed that the pump and valve both get warmer as you pump air in. The second thing you might recall
is that a drop in gas pressure causes cooling. You have almost certainly noticed this while spraying
deodorant from an aerosol bottle under your armpits. The compressed gas moves from the region of high
pressure inside the aerosol can to a region of much lower pressure outside the can, which causes the gas
temperature to plummet. You'll notice the same thing if you let the air rush out of an inflated tyre.

So increasing pressure of a gas causes warming and decreasing pressure causes cooling. But there's one
more thing. Pumping air into your soft drink bottle increases the internal temperature and therefore also
increases the rate of evaporation of the isopropyl alcohol (and some water) from the wet surfaces inside.
Releasing that high pressure suddenly causes a rapid and dramatic fall of temperature inside the bottle
causing the isopropyl alcohol vapour (and some water vapour) to condense into tiny droplets of visible liquid.
Each of those droplets reflects visible light forming a dense white fog, or cloud.

Pumping air back into the bottle causes the internal temperature to rise again so those droplets evaporate
once more and the air inside turns crystal clear once more.

The same fundamental principle produces the clear skies and fair weather we associate with high pressure
weather systems that form over land. The air in a high pressure system warms as it descends so the skies
tend to remain cloud-free. The relatively warm rising air of a low pressure weather system, however, cools as
it ascends into the atmosphere causing the invisible water vapour it carries to condense into beautiful, fluffy
clouds

References

1. http://www.planet-science.com/categories/experiments/weather/2011/03/make-a-cloud-in-a-
bottle.aspx

2. http://nicholasacademy.com/scienceexperiment224cloudinabottle.html#.WByXnfl95PY

3. http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2013/05/21/3759793.htm
4. http://www.livescience.com/40634-cloud-in-a-bottle-science-fair-projects.html