"Have you noted the water you drink? Did you send it down from the clouds, or did We? If We will, we can make it salty. You should be thankful. " (Quran 56/68-70)
Why does rain not fall in the form of a mass like a waterfall but fall as single drops?
One of the wonders Allah(God) created in rain is that rain does not fall onto the ground in the form of a large water mass like waterfalls. If rain fell on the ground in this form, it would not be possible for people to continue their daily lives during rainy seasons and floods would form during every rainfall. These floods would drag away everything in front of them and cause serious damage, both material and spiritual. However, due to the laws of physics created by our Almighty Lord, it falls on the ground in drops and by decreasing its speed turns into the precious water that is the source of life for all beings.
The reason that rain falls in drops is that water droplets are formed inside clouds. As is known, a cloud is formed by water vapor being thickened with dust and electrically positive charged particles. The diameter of these particles are generally between one and ten microns. (1 micron = 0.001 millimeters.) When clouds move upwards at a certain speed (1-10 meters/sec), they take water droplets with them naturally. As the water droplets rise up, they get bigger as their volume increases. Two or more droplets unite and form a rain drop. The air can no longer carry these drops and the rain drops begin to fall to the ground.
Since big drops fall faster than small drops until they reach a fixed speed, big drops and small drops crash and unite. Drops, which get bigger through crashing and uniting, encounter air resistance which distorts the shape of the water drop, spreads and turns into many small droplets in a short time, something on the order of six hundreths of a second. Since the speeds of drops of the same size are the same, and they move in the same direction, they do not crash with one another.
One of the wonders our Almighty Lord created in raindrops is certainly the falling speed of rain. When an object of the same size and weight as a raindrop is left from a height of 1,200 meters, it would get faster gradually and fall on the ground with a speed of almost 558 kilometers per hour. If the raindrop would fall from this height in the same way, this time all crops would be destroyed, places of settlement, houses and cars would be damaged and people would not be able to walk without taking necessary precautions. However, such an incident never occurs; no matter how high a distance raindrops fall from, when they reach the ground their speeds are only eight to ten kilometers per hour. The reason for this is that the raindrop has a shape that increases the frictional force of the atmosphere and makes it fall slower. If the raindrop had another shape, or if the atmosphere had no friction force, it would be enough to take a look at these numbers to see the disasters the world would face every time it rained.
Why does rain not heat up due to friction force and fall in the form of boiling water?
If rain drops got heated owing to the effect of friction force and fell on earth in the form of boiling water, life would never happen. However, rainwater is cold to maintain life due to our Lord's knowledge and mercy for His servants. When the droplet goes down, it becomes heated due to friction. However, this temperature is used for the vaporization of the droplet. Vaporization causes cooling on the surface of the droplet. Thus, a droplet gets smaller as it falls down, but it does not get hot. Therefore, the droplet is not hot and it does not rain scalding hot water from the skies.
As we all know, main source of water is the seas. Sea water is salty which is required to protect the living things in the sea. If sea water was not salty it would more easily get contaminated and become an unhealthy place for the organisms to survive. On the contarary, living things that exist on the land require unsalty water. That's why Allah(God) makes the seawater evaporise with sunlight. Seawater turns into vapour while it leaves its salt in the sea. The vapour rises and turns into clouds.
Allah(God) makes the clouds travel with winds. Then the water comes down on earth as rain or snow. That's how the seawater gets rid of its salt and and waters the lands. Creatures living on land (plants, animals, humans ) require water without salt but the creatures in water require salty water to live in. "He sends down from the sky water for your drink, and to grow trees for your benefit." (Quran: 16/10)
Likewise rain water penetrates through the soil and forms underground springs and rivers . The upper layers of soil are sandy so that the water can more easily penetrate in to the ground. On the contarary the lower layers of soil contain more clay which forms containers to keep the water and prevent it from being lost in deeper layers of the crust. That's how underground water supplies are formed . "Then which of the favours of your Lord will you deny?" ( Quran 55/13)
"Do you not see that Allah(God) sends down from the sky water, then places it into underground wells, then produces with it plants of various colors, then they grow until they turn yellow, then He turns them into hay? This should be a reminder for those who possess intelligence." (Quran: 39/21)
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