Make a Cloud Form in a Jar

This is a super simple experiment to teach your kids about weather.

In addition to creating your own cloud and learning about how clouds form in the atmosphere, you can use this chart to explain the different types of clouds and where they form in the sky.

How to Make a Cloud Video

How to Make a Cloud Experiment

Supplies Needed

• Glass Jar with a Lid (we used a pint mason jar)
• 1 cup Hot Boiling Water
• Blue Food Coloring (optional)
• Aerosol Hairspray
• 3-5 cubes of Ice

Experiment Instructions

Step 1 – Pour 1 cup of hot boiling water into a glass jar.

Helpful Tip: Use food coloring to dye the water blue before pouring it into the jar. This is not required, but does help distinguish the cloud from the water. Plus, it makes the water look like the sky.

Step 2 – Quickly spray hairspray into the jar.

Step 3 – Immediately put the lid onto the jar.

Helpful Tip: This step must be performed quickly, so have the lid handy. It also helps to have multiple people doing the experiment. One to spray the hairspray and one to put on the lid.

Step 4 – Place 3-5 pieces of ice on top of the lid of the jar.

Step 5 – Watch the top of the jar carefully and you will see a cloud begin to form.

Step 6 – After observing the cloud in the jar, remove the lid, and watch the cloud move out of the jar.

How Does the Experiment Work?

Clouds form when water from Earth’s surface is heated and evaporates (physical change from liquid to gas), rises into the atmosphere, and then cools and condenses (physical change from gas to liquid) onto microscopic particles (ie. dust, dirt, ash) in the air.

In our experiment, the warm water in the jar caused the air inside the jar to heat up. When this happened some of the water evaporated into the air. This evaporation caused water vapor in the jar. Then the warm, moist air (water vapor) rose from the surface of the water to the top of the jar. Once it reached the top of the jar, the warm, moist air began to cool down. This is because of the ice that was on the lid of the jar. The water vapor in the cooling air then condensed onto the particles of hairspray, forming a cloud in the jar!

If you observe the cloud carefully, you’ll notice that it swirls around the jar. This swirling is caused by a convection current of warm air rising and cold air sinking. A convection current is a current caused the rising and sinking of a heated and cooled fluid.

I hope you enjoyed the experiment. Here are some printable instructions:

Make a Cloud Science Experiment

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Materials

• Glass Jar with a Lid (we used a pint mason jar)
• 1 cup Hot Boiling Water
• Blue Food Coloring (optional)
• Aerosol Hairspray
• 3-5 cubes of Ice

Instructions

1. Pour 1 cup of hot boiling water into a glass jar.Helpful Tip: Use food coloring to dye the water blue before pouring it into the jar. This is not required, but does help distinguish the cloud from the water. Plus, it makes the water look like the sky.
2. Quickly spray hairspray into the jar.
3. Immediately put the lid onto the jar. Helpful Tip: This step must be performed quickly, so have the lid handy. It also helps to have multiple people doing the experiment. One to spray the hairspray and one to put on the lid.
4. Place a 3-5 pieces of ice on top of the lid of the jar.
5. Watch the top of the jar carefully and you will see a cloud begin to form.
6. After observing the cloud in the jar, remove the lid and watch the cloud escape out of the jar.