Homemade Rain Cloud

The water cycle is such a cool thing, but sometimes it’s hard to understand the science behind why it rains. This experiment is so cool because you can mimic the rain and clouds in a jar at home, and see the science behind why it rains right in your kitchen!

What you need:

• A jar
• Shaving cream
• Blue food coloring
• Water

Steps:

• Fill the jar 3/4 full with water

• Make a shaving cream “cloud” on top of the water

• Mix water with food coloring, and drop this mixture over the shaving cream until it soaks through into the water

How does this mimic the water cycle?

The shaving cream represents the clouds, the water represents the air, and the colored water represents rain. The color water saturates the shaving cream cloud, eventually becoming too heavy for the cloud to hold it. In the water cycle, water evaporates, or turns into a gas, and floats up and collects with other water molecules in the sky to form clouds. When the cloud becomes too heavy, the water starts to fall out of the cloud and becomes rain. This is like in the jar when the blue water starts to fall into the water beneath the shaving cream cloud because it became too heavy.