Got Science?

Answer by Awesome_Spectacular:

I have to say, this week's question was a little hard. We got several different opinions and answers from people. Just a little heads-up: please follow the rules! If you don't do things like write your own answer or provide a link, we can't give you credit for the answer. Sunnyd has clearly stated whoever didn't state a link this week will not get credit, so next for those of you, please make sure you have link next time!

Back to the question. Even though there were many opinions, the one I thought was correct after doing some research (with A LOT of help from Pippin14), the answer I think is correct is that drier air causes clouds to break up into smaller clouds. When drier air gets mixed with clouds, some parts of the cloud break away, or in more scientific terms, evaporate. Basically, this is the way a cloud breaks up into smaller clouds. When answering this, you should have remembered that clouds are little drops of frozen crystals, or water.

In a way, Pizzalover was technically correct in saying that clouds can't break up into smaller clouds because it depends on the size of the frozen droplets of water that make a cloud big or small. But technically, of that cloud, when dry air is mixed, parts of the cloud will evaporate, breaking it up into a smaller cloud.

Links: (mostly a big thanks to Pippin14!)

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/cloud-formation-how-do-clouds-form.html
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=An9r01NVQXbJH6pzcfnmz48azKIX;_ylv=3?qid=20100520140322AAOvHiR
http://www.rcn27.dial.pipex.com/cloudsrus/clouds.html
http://eo.ucar.edu/webweather/cloud2.html
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/wcloud0.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/wlumpwhy.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/resources/askjack/archives-clouds-precip.htm
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=4898
http://www.livescience.com/mysteries/070329_clouds_form.html
http://science.howstuffworks.com/cloud2.htm

(Note from Pippin: That's a lot of links! On another note, I found a really interesting article about why clouds are lumpy and another Q&A about clouds from scholastic that has some neat factoids, just in case you find clouds interesting!)