Science, Tech, Math › Science Cloud in a Bottle Demonstration Use Water Vapor to Form a Cloud Share Flipboard Email Print Science Activities for Every Subject Introduction Weather Make a Storm Glass to Predict the Weather Make a Simple Weather Barometer Make Real Snow Make a Cloud in a Bottle Determine Why the Sky Is Blue Food and Cooking Determine Vitamin C by Iodine Titration Make Biodiesel From Vegetable Oil Test for Protein in Food Experiment With Fruit Ripening and Ethylene See How Much Sugar Is in Soda Fire and Smoke Make Colored Fire Make a Smoke Bomb Make Chemical Fire Perform Magic Tricks With Fire Make a Sparkler Bubbles Make Bubbles That Don't Pop Make Glowing Bubbles Make a Giant Bubble Using Dry Ice Make a Bubble Rainbow Crystals Grow Bismuth Crystals Grow a Big Alum Crustal Grow a Borax Crystal Snowflake Grow Copper Sulfate Crystals Grow Table Salt or Sodium Chloride Crystals Chemical Reactions Build a Baking Soda Volcano Make Sulfuric Acid at Home Make Homemade Dry Ice Make Hydrogen Gas Make "Elephant Toothpaste" You can make your own cloud in a bottle using a bottle, some warm water, and a match. Ian Sanderson / Getty Images By Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D. Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D. Facebook Twitter Chemistry Expert Ph.D., Biomedical Sciences, University of Tennessee at Knoxville B.A., Physics and Mathematics, Hastings College Dr. Helmenstine holds a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences and is a science writer, educator, and consultant. She has taught science courses at the high school, college, and graduate levels. Learn about our Editorial Process Updated on July 06, 2018 Here's a quick and easy science project you can do: make a cloud inside a bottle. Clouds form when water vapor forms tiny visible droplets. This results from cooling the vapor. It helps to provide particles around which the water can liquefy. In this project, we'll use smoke to help form a cloud. Cloud in a Bottle Materials You only need a few basic materials for this science project: 1-liter bottleWarm waterMatch Let's Make Clouds Pour just enough warm water in the bottle to cover the bottom of the container.Light the match and place the match head inside the bottle.Allow the bottle to fill with smoke.Cap the bottle.Squeeze the bottle really hard a few times. When you release the bottle, you should see the cloud form. It may disappear between "squeezes." The Other Way to Do It You can also apply the ideal gas law to make a cloud in a bottle:PV = nRT, where P is pressure, V is volume, n is number of moles, R is a constant, and T is temperature. If the amount of gas (as in a closed container) isn't changed, then if you raise the pressure, the only way for the temperature of the gas to be unchanged is by decreasing the container volume proportionally. If you're not sure you can squeeze the bottle hard enough to achieve this (or that it would bounce back) and want a really dense cloud, you can do the not-as-child-friendly version of this demonstration (still pretty safe). Pour hot water from a coffeemaker into the bottom of the bottle. Instant cloud! (... and a slight melting of the plastic) If you can't find any matches, light a strip of cardboard on fire, insert it into the bottle, and let the bottle get nice and smoky. How Clouds Form Molecules of water vapor will bounce around like molecules of other gases unless you give them a reason to stick together. Cooling the vapor slows the molecules down, so they have less kinetic energy and more time to interact with each other. How do you cool the vapor? When you squeeze the bottle, you compress the gas and increase its temperature. Releasing the container lets the gas expand, which causes its temperature to go down. Real clouds form as warm air rises. As air gets higher, its pressure is reduced. The air expands, which causes it to cool. As it cools below the dew point, water vapor forms the droplets we see as clouds. Smoke acts the same in the atmosphere as it does in the bottle. Other nucleation particles include dust, pollution, dirt, and even bacteria. Cite this Article Format mla apa chicago Your Citation Helmenstine, Anne Marie, Ph.D. "Cloud in a Bottle Demonstration." ThoughtCo, Apr. 5, 2023, thoughtco.com/cloud-in-a-bottle-demonstration-604247. Helmenstine, Anne Marie, Ph.D. (2023, April 5). Cloud in a Bottle Demonstration. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/cloud-in-a-bottle-demonstration-604247 Helmenstine, Anne Marie, Ph.D. "Cloud in a Bottle Demonstration." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/cloud-in-a-bottle-demonstration-604247 (accessed May 29, 2023). copy citation