Learn About Weather and States of Matter | Educational Science Video for Kids

Hello brainiacs. Check out our cool new Weather Explorer truck! It is super heavy and very durable, so it can withstand extreme conditions and many different types of

weather

, such as rain, snow, thunderstorms, and even tornadoes. Have you ever wondered what causes all these different

weather

patterns? Before

learn

ing how weather works, we need to know what

matter

is. Welcome back to Brain Candy TV. Everything you see around you is made of

matter

: our weather scout truck, the trees, the ground and even the things we can't see, like the air we breathe, are all made of matter. Matter is made up of lots of really small things called atoms, which are too small to see with our eyes.

The three most common types of matter that we experience every day are solid, liquid, and gas. Atoms are always in motion. When atoms move just a little, but stay firmly in place, we call that type of matter a solid. Because atoms are tightly bound together, a solid has a definite shape and volume, like these blocks of ice. When atoms heat up, they move faster and can begin to slide around each other. This turns the solid into a liquid. The shape of a liquid will change to fit its container. But the amount of space it takes up, also called volume, does not change.

The water in these puddles is an example of a liquid. When the atoms in a liquid are heated further, they begin to move away from each other and disperse. When atoms can fly freely, it is called a gas. A gas has no defined shape or defined volume. A gas will fly around and fill whatever container it is in, like the water vapor in this fog. Most gases have atoms so far apart that we can't even see them, like the air we breathe. Although we cannot see the air, we can feel it on our skin and see tree branches move when the wind blows.

But what causes the wind? Remember that when atoms get hot, they start to move faster and move further apart. When the sun shines on one side of the Earth, it heats the atoms in the air, causing them to disperse. This makes the air lighter, so it begins to rise higher into the atmosphere. It's like when the burners of the hot air balloon heat the air inside the big colorful envelope. The atoms in the hot air spread out more, making the hot air lighter than the cooler air around it, so the hot air floats toward the sky.

When warm air from the sunny side of the Earth rises into the atmosphere, cooler air from the surrounding area rushes to take its place. As the Earth rotates, this rise of warm air on the sunny side of the Earth and entry of colder air is what causes most of the wind to blow. Have you ever wondered how clouds form and how they reach the sky? We see clouds come and go, but how did they get there? When liquid water is heated, some of the atoms fly away as an invisible gas called water vapor. This process of changing from liquid to gas is called evaporation.

Alright Lizzy, let's put our Weather Explorer into flight mode and take a closer look at those clouds. As the invisible water vapor floats higher and higher, the air becomes colder and thinner. This cold, low-pressure air converts water vapor into small droplets of liquid water or ice that adhere to small pieces of dust floating in the air. When many of these small water droplets form at the same time, they form a cloud! This process of changing from gas to liquid is called condensation. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to fly through a cloud? Let's try!

Wow, that was great! Isn't it beautiful up here? No matter how dark and dreary a cloudy day is, it's always nice sunshine above the clouds! Sometimes, when the air is just right, a cloud can form at ground level instead of in the sky. When a cloud forms at ground level, it is called fog. So if you drive on a foggy day, it's like you're driving in the middle of a cloud! Cool! Stay tuned! We will return after these messages. When the small water droplets in the cloud clump together and become larger and heavier, they fall back to the ground.

Do you know what these falling water drops are called? That's right, it's raining! Rain falls back to the ground or into lakes and oceans. When rain falls to the ground, we call that process precipitation. When the clouds leave and the sun comes out, the water begins to evaporate again and the whole process begins again. This process of repeated evaporation, condensation and precipitation is called the water cycle. If the air is very cold when a cloud forms, the water vapor will turn into small solid ice crystals instead of water droplets. What do you think it's called when these ice crystals are heavy enough to fall to the ground?

That's how it is! This is how SNOW is made! Because snow is solid, it can accumulate on the ground and stay there for a long time. It's a good thing that our Weather Explorer truck has large snow tires, so it can easily drive through deep snow. The air becomes colder as you go higher in the sky. That is why it is common to see snow on the tops of the mountains. It is very cold on the top of this mountain. Look at all that snow! Sometimes when the temperature changes rapidly, large heavy clouds and strong winds are created.

These are the right conditions for a storm to occur! Have you ever rubbed your shoes on the carpet and then got a little scare when you touched a doorknob? The action of rubbing creates a static electrical charge in your body, and when you touch the metal doorknob, the electrical charge jumps from your finger to the metal doorknob, since metal is good at conducting electricity. Lightning works the same way, but on a much larger scale. When storm clouds are buffeted by strong winds, small particles of rain, snow and ice rub against each other, creating a static electrical charge.

Often the bottom of a cloud becomes negatively charged and the ground below becomes positively charged. These positive and negative charges attract each other like magnets, but they are too far apart so they cannot reach each other. But, when electrical charges get really strong, they can jump great distances into the clouds or even to the ground. When this happens, lightning is created! When a large bolt of lightning streaks across the sky, it instantly heats the surrounding air to about fifty thousand degrees Fahrenheit. This causes the air around the lighting to expand very quickly, creating a shock wave and a loud bang.

The air then cools rapidly and snaps back into place, producing a long, dull sound. These loud noises caused by the expansion and contraction of air are called thunder! If you watch a storm from your window, you may notice that the sound usually arrives much later than the lightning. This is because light travels almost a million times faster than sound. It's like comparing the speed of this snail that only moves 1 mm per second, with that of the fastest jet in the world, which can fly at almost 1 km per second. So even if the beam is very far away, we can see its light almost immediately, but it takes about five seconds for sound to travel a mile, or three seconds to travel a kilometer.

So if you hear thunder five seconds after seeing lightning strike, that means the lightning is about a mile away. Let's count the seconds to see how far away the lightning is. One Two Three Four Five. It took five seconds for the sound of lightning to reach us, so it was a mile away. Let's time the next one. One, two, th... That time the thunder took only two and a half seconds, so the lightning was only half a mile away. Sometimes when there is a really big storm called a supercell, it can create very strong rotating winds that spiral up into the air.

This is called a mesocyclone! If the storm also has very heavy rain, the rain can drag the mesocyclone to the ground, and that's how a tornado forms! Tornadoes have dangerous winds that can move up to 300 miles per hour. That's as fast as the world's fastest hypercar! This is what 300 miles per hour looks like. Wow, tornadoes have SUPER fast winds! Tornadoes are very dangerous, so if you ever see a tornado, make sure you get to a safe place as soon as possible. Fortunately, all the people and animals on this farm have already left the city to stay safe from the tornado.

In fact, even though our Weather Explorer is really tough, maybe we should get out of here too! Come on Lizzy, let's get out of here! Whoa, keep calm, Lizzy! Those tornado winds are super strong! Ah, that's better. The weather is much better here! Isn't the weather fascinating? I hope you enjoyed

learn

ing about the weather with us, Brainiacs. Thank you to all of our amazing Patreon patrons for your support of our show! Special thanks to our new Super Brainiacs!: Sawyer and Nate, Liam Coreone, Genaro, Arin, Torren, Anthony and Eden, David Lee Barr, Finley Wilder, Tyler and Bennett, Quinn and Augie, Ryan and Hayden, Hunter, Xavier , Jonah , March, Gabe and Freya, Micah, Jon IV and Robin, Lenny F, Adriana and Connor, Weston, Nick Davin, Jack and Yuvi and Yash.

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