Agony

Okay this might sound stupid, but I am really unable to figure this one out. What I know: Water dissipates, condenses again in the atmosphere, creates clouds, which will condense more and create rain. volume of rain=volume of dissipated water. Question: Since more water dissipates in the summer(heat and all) than in the winter, why doesn't it rain more in the summer? The sky is always filled with clouds in the winter, but there are barely any clouds in the summer... I'm sure the answer is pretty simple, and I'm just clueless. Thanks in advance, Agony

So am I correct to assume that if a space vehicle didn't need to go into orbit it would go in a straight line up if it strong enough to take all the Dynamic Pressure?

Hello everybody, I found this forum while trying to find an answer for a question(and am quite exited about the plethora of knowledge you've got here). I hope I'm posting in the right forum(since launching space shuttles is still largely dependant on newton's physics) I've been watching the launch videos of a few space shuttles on youtube and noticed that all of them go up vertically in the beginning, but after reaching a certain point they will fly at about 45 degrees from what I saw. First I thought it's because shuttles don't leave earth orbit so they need to kick into orbit and start going horizontal a bit early, but then I saw that Apollo 11 did the same although it had to go to the moon. My question is: Wouldn't it be more efficient to go in a straight vertical line and only change course after leaving the atmosphere since earth gravity is much weaker there? I guess they didn't plot the courses this way for no reason, but I simply can't see the reason they'd go horizontally, and I'd be very grateful if any of you would enlighten me on the subject. (hope I won't be using the smiley when I hear the answer)