My PBL Project Cloud Formation

INTRODUCTION

Do you know how clouds are made?

The air will be pumped into the container causing an increase in pressure inside as well as a decrease in the temperature. Therefore, you will be able to see water vapor inside the container for a few seconds before it becomes invisible once again. This water vapor is a cloud that was created due to the pressure and rise in temperature. The following project is a cloud formation project. This experiment will teach others how clouds are formed. Do you know what clouds are? Clouds are collections of many tiny droplets of water. Pressure, density, and temperature will remain in balance by the ideal gas law. All the following factors, will help lead to the formation of a cloud.

MATERIALS

• • 2 Luer lock cap

  • 8 thumbscrews

  • 3 stopper catchers

  • 2 rubber stoppers

  • 1 syringe

  • 20 mL of water

PROCEDURE

Procedure 1: Assembly for Cloud Formation

• • Screw the three stopper catchers into the threaded holes around one of the large holes in the top of the chamber.

  • Plug in one of the female Luer lock ports and connect the check valve tube and the syringe.

  • Plug in one of the rubber stoppers "upside-down" through the inside so it sticks out of one of holes on top of the chamber.

  • Fasten the top of the chamber to the base with the eight thumbscrews.

  • Pour about 20 mL of water into the chamber and firmly insert the other rubber stopper into the remaining hole on top of the chamber.

Procedure 2: Cloud Formation

• 1. Use the syringe to pump air into the the chamber to increase the pressure inside. (Make sure to pump quick enough)

  2. Continue to pump until the rubber stopper pops out of the hole.

  3. Observe the mist (cloud) that formed inside the chamber.

SAFETY!

*Please wear goggles

*Please make sure you are at an appropriate distance away from the rubber stoppers when they "pop" out

-sometimes the stopper catchers may lose their grip on the rubber stopper due to strength of it's ejection

SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLE

Ideal Gas Law

The Ideal Gas Law is where all collisions between the atoms/molecules become elastic and do not interact.

Ideal Gas Law is:

PV= nRT

P= absolute pressure

V= absolute volume

n=number of moles

R=8.3145 J

T= absolute temperature

Atmospheric pressure

Atmospheric/air pressure is the force exerted on "objects" per unit of area exerted on the Earth's surface by the weight of the air above the surface.

Classification of Clouds

The existence many clouds such as stratus, altostratus, cirrus, cumulus, cirrocumulus, altocumulus, cumulonimbus, nimbostratus, cumulus congestus, stratocumulus, wall cloud, shelf cloud, fractus, mammatus, and contrails.

Cirro- means curl of hair, high.

Strato- means layer.

Cumulo- means heap.

Alto- means mid.

Nimbo- means rain/precipitation.