Science Common Sense

9 - What is the water cycle?

The water cycle is the journey water takes as it circulates around our Earth. It has three main stages:

  1. Evaporation: The sun heats up the Earth and water evaporates from oceans, lakes, and rivers into the air as water vapor.
  2. Condensation: The water vapor rises into the air and cools down, turning back into liquid water as droplets. These droplets form clouds.
  3. Precipitation: When the clouds get too heavy with water, the water droplets fall back to the Earth as rain, snow, or hail.

This process repeats over and over, and it's what helps distribute water throughout our planet.

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