eli5: How do (presumably very heavy) clouds stay suspended in the sky? More specifically how are they floating AND flat on the bottom?

Question

And what causes them to suddenly drop all of that water in the form of rain.

Judging by the amount of rain they must weigh a ton.

In: 337

Answer 1

Because while they are very heavy, they are very very big, giving them the low density needed to float. Just like how a massive cruise-liner can float in water even though they are similarly very heavy.

And rain happens when the tiny light droplets of water that make up the cloud start coalescing into bigger droplets, which are themselves denser than air, so they fall through the cloud, picking up more tiny droplets, letting them fall even more.