Why Raindrops Are Mathematically Impossible

Rain shouldn't happen, according to basic physics.

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[dryued]

0:38
"And why bubbles form the crazy sh--"
You had me there for a second.

[ThePhantomGazz]

Awesome video as always. I'm glad im not the only one who didn't understand a word of this video.

[markogradovski]

I like how i want to understand something but i'm to dumb and only look at the pictures.

[morningtarr]

*I am currently processing 41 wtfs per second . . .*

[QuijanoPhD]

Or in English, raindrops are possible because they have dirt in them and the dirt holds them together, but raindrops made entirely of water without anything to hold them together are impossible because math. 

It sure would be interesting to see an experiment demonstrating this. Maybe with something like a water distiller in a controlled and sealed off environment.

[TheZALGOisCOMING]

"If we ignore thousands of factors and only look at two laws of physics, this thing that happens can't happen."

You don't say?

[lolcatgaming]

1:03 "the greatest danger could be right behind you..."
*sneaks a look behind self
*cat's behind him
"Kitty!"

[_imperiumromanum]

"The greatest danger can be right behind you."

SPY!

[stellarfirefly]

I never really liked the whole "if it's less than 1"-type arguments because they are dependent upon the units used.  If you measure raindrops by the meter, then of course their radius will be a very tiny fraction, and squaring/cubing will make the numbers much smaller.  But if you measure them in angstroms, for example, then they will be a large number and squaring/cubing will make them much larger.  And one cannot argue that raindrops will behave differently based upon what units are used to measure them.

[matteomanfredi]

More volume, energy go out.
More surface, energy go in.
If droplet small, more energy in than out->impossible droplet.
If droplet big, more energy out than in; but the droplet must be too big to exist.
So the droplets require more energy than what they give. WHY?



Tried to traduce for you :)

[Derekivery]

No such thing as rain, got it!!!!

So the wet stuff falling from the sky is Gods tears. Thanks Science! j/k

[shoutitallloud]

what the hell was that?
somebody tell this guy youtube videos can be longer than 2 minutes.

[samwilliams]

Maybe I should have watched this *before* my GCSE physics exam. Damn, that was 44 minutes ago.

[MrBauchnabbel]

I dare complaining. "it's mathematically impossible" is obviously wrong since it happens. What you should really say is "if we model the process in a such stupid way that it doesnt work, then it doesnt work". 
Your explanation of why the model doesnt work is fine, I'm just defending the honour of mathematics.

[lmeza]

Im still waiting for the answer to "Why Raindrops Are Mathematically Impossible"

[_sayan_roy_]

How mind-blowing and beautiful the connection of these 2 videos of MinutePhysics and MinuteEarth are!Don't have time to explain, but i think those who've watched the 2 would understand.

[garyermann]

Since there's a lot of confusion about what the video is trying to say, here's a simplified list of concepts so that you connect everything he's saying:
1) Physical objects want to go towards the lowest energy state they can
2) When forming liquid droplets, there is energy associated with both the volume and surface area of the droplets
3) Because of the way the volume and surface area effect the energy of droplets, a larger droplet will lose energy by GROWING in size, while a smaller droplet will lose energy by SHRINKING in size. Remember that droplets will tend towards whatever loses them energy.
4) The rain you see from the sky is on the smaller side of this scale, and therefore it's "physically impossible" for pure water in clouds to ever condense into raindrops because it means they'd be increasing their energy.
5) Watch the minuteearth video and it will explain that raindrops aren't pure water, but instead form around specks of dirt or other impurities in the air. This allows smaller droplets to grow large enough to become raindrops while still decreasing their energy.

[TheScholesie]

you lost me when you brought science into it.

[myspacebarisbroken]

Instead of using 0.1 cm, you could just use 1mm, which would get rid of the cubing vs. squaring problem. This problem is based on the units we use. Can someone please educate me about how this really works?

[TheUnicornslayer]

Small numbers? But what is small? Small maybe, relative to our everyday scale, but it not on the molecular level.