The raindrop shape you’ve seen your whole life is wrong.

Falling raindrops are not teardrop-shaped, they’re closer to tiny spheres. Surface tension pulls small drops into round forms, and as they grow larger, air resistance flattens the bottom into something more like a hamburger bun. If they get too big, they don’t stretch into a point, they break apart.

The familiar teardrop shape only appears when water is clinging to a surface, not when it’s falling through the sky.