6. What is this Continued…
When the raindrop falls from many thousands of feet up in the air, because of its weight and the speed at which it falls, it contains a great deal of kinetic energy. It is like a fast descending little bomb. Under natural conditions in a well managed game reserve, that little falling bomb hits the leaves of the trees, or twigs in the upper branches, or it impacts with the thicker branches lower down. Whatever it hits, that little bomb explodes into a myriad tiny water droplets that descend, harmlessly and softly, like a mist, to the ground below. And if any raindrops miss the obstacles represented by the woodland trees, they will be intercepted by under-story plants beneath the big trees’ canopies, or by grass much lower down. Even the dead leaves that carpet the ground beneath the trees act as a cushion to absorb the kinetic energy of the raindrop when it hits the ground.
