How To Make A Cloud In A Bottle.

The purpose of my project is, How to make a cloud with rubbing alcohol?

How can you make a cloud with only a bottle, pump, and rubbing alcohol? Let me tell you how in the following steps. All you have to do is get a plastic bottle and then you pour rubbing alcohol in the bottle. Next you drill a hole through the lid and then put a bike valve through it. Now all you have to do is swoosh the liquid around the bottle and then pump the bottle up until you feel like it has enough pressure. One day I was thinking about what are clouds made of and how do they form. Then I thought how cool would it be to make a cloud. After looking at many videos I said to myself, “I could make this better.” So I came up with the idea of adding a pump. I have a hypothesis of what is going to happen and that is that it will still work. Originally they only put alcohol in the bottle and then they twisted it and it worked. That's when I thought of adding a pump and if it will work better. ¨Does more pressure create a larger and dense cloud in the bottle?¨ is what I am wondering.

Science project.mp4

Purpose

One day I was thinking about what are clouds made of and how do they form. Then I thought how cool would it be to make a cloud. I looked up how to make a cloud and many options came up. I scrolled down and found a video about how to make a cloud in a bottle. I clicked on it and it showed me a tutorial and I got even more interested in this. After looking at many videos I said to myself, “I could make this better.” So I came up with the idea of adding a pump. I have a hypothesis of what is going to happen and that is that it will still work. Originally they only put alcohol in the bottle and then they twisted it and it worked. That's when I thought of adding a pump and if it will work better. Does more pressure create a larger and dense cloud in the bottle is what I am wondering?

Research

Before we talk about how to make a cloud, we have to know what all of the items are involved in the experiment. Rubbing alcohol is 70% of absolute alcohol and the rest is oils, denaturants( which is a bunch of alcohols to make it denser), and water (“Isopropyl Alcohol.”). You can get rubbing alcohol at any pharmacy, drug departments, and in the stores. What is atmospheric pressure? It is the pressure given off by the earth's atmosphere (“Atmospheric pressure.”). You measure it with a tool called a barometer. A barometer is an upside down glass tube standing in a beaker filled with mercury (“Pressure Measurement Overview.”). The atmospheric pressure pushes the mercury down filing the measured glass tube up to a certain point.

Do you ever look at the sky and try to find a shape in the clouds or do you wonder what a cloud is made of? That is why I am here to tell you all about it. A cloud is made up of water that evaporates from lakes, rivers, oceans, and any body of water. After the water evaporates the small water molecules form to make the shapes up in the sky and the abundance of clouds.

What is water vapor? I would love to share with you! Water vapor is a molecule of water especially produced by evaporation at exact temperatures rather than by boiling. Many people might ask what does compress mean? Compress means to push together making it more compact. What does condense mean? It means to reduce or shorten in volume, area, or length. More people might ask what does evaporate mean well let me tell you. Evaporate means to change from a liquid or solid state into vapor. Sometimes when you wonder how the puddles on the streets disappear, they evaporate. Also, another question is what are water molecules? Water molecules are made of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom that are bonded together(Angle bay). Water molecules are also very small.

There are many more interesting questions that should be explored. One example is what is a tire valve? It is a small valve, on the wheel rim of a tubeless tire. It allows air to be added to the tire with an air hose and allows air to be taken from an over-inflated tire by pressing on the little stem at the end of the valve. Where can you get them? You can get tire valves from auto part stores such as Autozone, or several tire place, for example, the Tire Kingdom and more(“Tire Valve Stem”). Another question can be how does a bike pump work or where can you get one? Well, let me start with what a bike pump is. It works by a piston that moves back and forth inside a cylinder, the cylinder draws air from outside when you pull out the handle and pushing it into the rubber tire(Woodford). You could get this at a store such as Walmart, or a local bike shop.

My project procedure

These are the materials needed to do it yourself.

A plastic bottle (any size or shape)
Tire valve
Bike pump/air compressor
Glue gun/glue
Drill/Drill bit
Rubbing alcohol
Safety eye-wear for protection

After getting all the materials needed you are ready to start the project. My procedure is as follows: first, you need to get a plastic bottle of any size. After doing so you need to drill a large size hole into the cap. Next, you will need to get a tire valve and place it into the hole of the cap. If the hole is not big enough you will have to drill with a bigger bit until you have the right size. Next step, you heat up your glue gun and hot glue the tire valve in place making sure that there are no spaces for air to escape. This is a very important step to make sure no air leaks out. Once you have done that you need to put a small amount of rubbing alcohol in the bottle and put the cap back on. Swish the bottle around to get the rubbing alcohol all over the bottle as even as possible. Getting enough alcohol to coat all sides of the bottle is very important. Next, you need to get a pump of some sort and fill the bottle up with air until it feels really full then twist the cap off quickly and it will make a cloud the moment you take the cap off.

Conclusion/Reserch

My overall observation was it works great! It was so exciting to experiment with making my own cloud. After doing many test and observations I have realized that the more pressure the thicker the cloud. As well as, the more alcohol the thicker the cloud. I did the experiment multiple times. Initially, the cloud was really thin during the first run of the experiment. Everything went right when I put more air in the bottle resulting in a thicker cloud. Another cool observation was I realized when I opened it and hit the bottle lightly that little rings of vapor came out. The cloud lasted for approximately 10 seconds. I recommend trying this really neat experiment. If you try this experiment yourself I recommend if you have one to use an air compressor. The air compressor helps it work better and faster.

In conclusion, the purpose of my paper was to find out how clouds are made. Also, I wanted to find out if it is possible to make a cloud that is man made. My experiment was a huge success and I really enjoyed doing it. In the end it worked but the cloud was not as thick as I wished. My hypothesis was that adding a pump would work better then when someone twisted it to add pressure. My hypothesis was correct it did work better and there was more vapor in it because there was more pressure built up in the bottle. If I were to do this again, I would use a bottle with a bigger cap so the pump is easier to put in and glue. If I could add any thing I would buy a small air compressor to bring to school so I could do a live demonstration for my peers and teachers. I would have liked to dive deeper into the size and quality of the cloud being made for future experiments. Now, when I look into the sky i have a whole new appreciation for how clouds are made.

Works Cited

Angdembay, Nissim. “What is a water molecule made up of?” Quora, 8 Aug. 2015, www.quora.com/What-is-a-water-molecule-made-up-of. Accessed 8 Feb. 2017.

“Atmospheric pressure.” Dictionary.com. www.dictionary.com/browse/atmospheric-pressure

Accessed 8 Feb. 2017.

“Isopropyl Alcohol.” Drugs.com, 12 Apr. 2017, www.drugs.com/inactive/isopropyl-alcohol-159.html.

Accessed 8 Feb. 2017.

Jessa, Tega. “What are clouds made of?” Universe Today, 24 Dec. 2015,

www.universetoday.com/73198/what-are-clouds-made-of/. Accessed 8 Feb. 2017.

“Pressure Measurement Overview.” National Instruments, 2 June 2017,

www.ni.com/white-paper/13034/en/#toc2. Accessed 8 Feb. 2017.

“Tire Valve Stem”. AutoZone. www.autozone.com/tire-repair-and-tire-wheel/tire-valve-stem.

Accessed 8 Feb. 2017.

“Vi-Jon 91% Isopropyl Alcohol First Aid Antiseptic, 32 fl oz.” Walmart,

www.walmart.com/ip/Vi-Jon-91-Isopropyl-Alcohol-First-Aid-Antiseptic-32-fl-oz/33057974. Accessed 8 Feb. 2017.

Woodford, Chris. “Pumps and compressors.” ExplainThatStuff, 12 Dec. 2016,