What happens to a water droplet in the water cycle?
As it moves through the water cycle, water often changes from a liquid, to a solid (ice), to a gas (water vapor). The water droplets that form make up clouds. Water vapor can also condense into droplets near the ground, forming fog when the ground is cold.
Which step of the water cycle occurs when water droplets in the air join together becoming so heavy that they fall to the ground?
Along with evaporation and condensation, precipitation is one of the three major parts of the global water cycle. Precipitation forms in the clouds when water vapor condenses into bigger and bigger droplets of water. When the drops are heavy enough, they fall to the Earth.
What’s the process of water droplets?
Water vapor in the air reaches its dew point as it cools in the air around the can, forming liquid drops of water. Condensation is the process where water vapor becomes liquid. It is the reverse of evaporation, where liquid water becomes a vapor.
What part of the water cycle do the raindrops represent?
Precipitation
Precipitation is part of the water cycle. Precipitation falls to the ground as snow and rain. It eventually evaporates and rises back into the atmosphere as a gas. In clouds, it turns back into liquid or solid water, and it falls to Earth again.
Where do water droplets come from?
WARMER water vapour from the surrounding air comes into contact with the COOLER surface of the object, LOSES HEAT to it and CONDENSES to form water droplets.
How are water droplets carried in the water cycle?
Explore how water droplets form and fall from the sky in part three of the water cycle series. Water vapor drifting above the oceans is carried over land by winds, and eventually falls to the surface in the form of rain and snow. As evaporated water rises in the atmosphere, it expands and cools.
What is Step 2 of the water cycle?
Water Cycle Step #2: Water condenses to form clouds. Water vapor rises up in the sky due to the sun’s heat. Once the water vapor rises high enough it condenses into water droplets. Condensation is the process of water turning from a gas into a liquid. You have probably experienced condensation if you have had a cold glass of water at a restaurant.
What happens to water vapor in the water cycle?
There, warm updrafts coming from the heated land surface took the dropettes (now water vapor) up even higher, where the air is quite cold. When the vapor got cold it changed back into it a liquid (the process is condensation). If it was cold enough, it would have turned into tiny ice crystals, such as those that make up cirrus clouds.
Where does precipitation go in the water cycle?
From these places, it is back again either into the air, down sewers into rivers and eventually into the ocean, or back into the ground. But our drop may be a land-lover. Plenty of precipitation ends up staying on the earth’s surface to become a component of surface water.