Sometimes you should not be too meticulous, analyzing the conditions of the puzzle, doing complex calculations, studying dictionaries and encyclopedias.
Sometimes riddles can be built just on beautiful images. For example, to the question “what is a water mountain lighter than a feather”, most often they choose the answer that corresponds to the ideas of weightless, soft, gentle, thin. What happens if all these romantic ideas are checked with algebra?
Maybe it's a cloud?
The most common answer to the "water mountain is lighter than a feather" riddle is a cloud. Yes, curly-haired celestial lambs give the impression of almost weightless formations, obedient even to the slightest breath of the breeze. But, perhaps, it is worth studying this issue more carefully.
First, is it correct to call a cloud a water mountain?
When the air temperature ranges from 0 to minus 15 degrees Celsius, this "sky wool" is a cluster of cold drops. And despite the fact thatAs the temperature drops, the structure of these drops becomes crystalline; they are essentially the same liquid. And therefore, in front of the word "water" we put a plus sign. The mountain is fine too. After all, no matter how amorphous and difficult to measure a cloud may look, its parameters can be determined.
Cirrocumulus formations have the largest vertical dimensions. They can be 16 kilometers high. Why not a water mountain? Lighter than a pen? Let's try to figure this out.
Zoologists carefully weighed the clothes of birds. According to them, in a tiny hummingbird, the feather does not exceed one gram. A much more representative ostrich has feathers per kilogram in weight.
As for the clouds, the numbers are:
- 1 cloud cubic meter reaches 20 kg.
- With a height of 7 meters, the weight of a cloud can be 20,000 tons.
- Average weight about 10 tons.
By a simple comparison, we see that the question "a water mountain is lighter than a feather" cannot have an answer "a cloud".
And if it's a cloud?
The cloud is obviously even less likely to hit the mark and win the guessing contest. Their weight is sometimes measured in the number of elephants.
- Thundercloud weighs an average of 200,000 elephants.
- Hurricane - up to 40 million elephants.
What keeps these titans in the sky? From below they are supported by ascending air currents over which they are formed. The pressure of the rising air is stronger than that exerted in the opposite direction by drops of water. But they don'talways remain warm, and, having cooled, they seem to “sag”.
The water inside the cloud freezes. If the ambient temperature is low, then precipitation will be in the form of snow or hail. In case of heat, the frozen drops falling from above melt and people open their umbrellas.
And although all these herds of clouds float calmly in the air, neither an ostrich, nor even a hummingbird can pull such a colossus.
Well, fog then?
Alas, everything is just as hopeless with him. His water mountain couldn't be lighter than a feather.
Even if the fog is not ice crystals that surround the lanterns in a sparkling halo or sparkle in the sun, but steam particles (in warmer weather), it is heavier than bird armor.
So none of the three atmospheric phenomena considered won.
What about the bubble?
They asked the problem “a water mountain is lighter than a pen” at school, classmates, along with a cloud, a cloud and fog, offered another answer. But note that the water bubble is not stable. It just won't last until it's inflated, it'll burst.
People, of course, figured out how to improve it. Soap is added to the water. The walls become more elastic and iridescent. Soap bubbles are a favorite entertainment for children.
The largest such balloon was inflated in 2017 in Russia. This achievement belongs to Lyudmila Darina. The Guinness Book of Records recorded in this case the largest number of people inside a soap bubble. 374!
Bothcomponents (both liquid and height) are present. Therefore, it can be called a water mountain. Lighter than a pen? Is it? After all, there is air in the bubble. Moreover, weighing an average of 1 kg per 1 cm cubic.
Again, by simple calculations, we get that the bubble cannot be lighter than a feather, except maybe a small hollow sphere.
They say that human happiness weighs like a cloud. Apparently, the riddle “a water mountain is lighter than a pen” was invented by subtle romantic natures. And don't sit around with a calculator trying to count the elephants in the sky. And you should not chase a hummingbird or an ostrich to compare them to a cloud. You can choose any of the four proposed answers, unless, of course, the reader is a supporter of the "other" column and has not already come up with his own option.
