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The process of growth by coalescence is examined from the viewpoint of a discrete rather than a continuous accretion process. It is concluded that, for drops beginning growth at twice the volume of their neighbors, random fluctuations in the times taken for different drops to effect captures can lead to the formation of a complete raindrop spectrum in times shorter than that required for growth to raindrop size by the continuous growth process. Under typical conditions, drops of 23-microns radius can form in the order of 5 minutes in a cloud of droplets of 10 microns, while smaller numbers of much larger drops can be expected in reasonable times. The latter are likely to be important in chain-reaction theories.
J. W. Telford (1955) studied this question.