Science Court The Water Cycle

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Science CourtThe Water Cycle
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The Water Cycle Part I Questions Answers

• What are three states, or forms, of matter?
• Ice is water in its solid state. Liquid water is
  water in its liquid state. Water vapor is water
  in its gaseous state.
• What state of matter is air?
• Air is a gas.
• What is condensation?
• Condensation is the changing of a gas to a
  liquid.

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The Water Cycle Part I Questions Answers

• What are two examples of condensation?
• Some examples include a fogged up windshield, a
  fogged up mirror, dew on the grass in the
  morning, your breath on a cold day, etc.
• How does condensation explain the water droplets
  on a cold glass?
• Water vapor in the air is warm and will condense
  on the outside of a water glass because it has
  been cooled by the ice water inside.
• Whats an example of water changing from a solid
  to a liquid?
• Ice melting is one example. Can you think of
  others?

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The Water Cycle Part 2 Questions Answers

• What is evaporation?
• Evaporation is when a liquid turns into a gas.
• What are two examples of evaporation?
• A rain puddle on the sidewalk disappears after
  the sun shines on it, boiling water disappears
  from a pot, etc.
• When water evaporates, what state of matter does
  it become?
• Evaporating water becomes water vapor, which is
  the gas phase of water.

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The Water Cycle Part 2 Questions Answers

• What is the water cycle?
• Water evaporates from the water on the Earth (and
  transpiration from trees) and rises into the
  atmosphere. When the warm air reaches the cold
  sky it condenses to form clouds. Precipitation
  occurs in the clouds and falls as rain, snow,
  sleet, hail, fog, or freezing rain. After runoff
  occurs, precipitation accumulates on the ground
  and evaporates again. The water cycle repeats
  over and over.
• What experiment would tell you if water takes
  stuff with it when it evaporates?
• If you mix salt and water in a beaker, the salt
  will be left in the beaker after the water
  evaporates. In class, the blue dye was left at
  the bottom of the beaker after the water
  evaporated.
• Where should Doug Savage look for the food
  coloring?
• He should look at the bottom of the container
  that was heated.

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The Water Cycle Part 3 Questions Answers

• What are 2 factors that influence how fast water
  evaporates?
• The surface area (which is the amount of water
  exposed to the air) of the water, the amount of
  water vapor already in the air, and the
  temperature of the air.
• Why will water evaporate more slowly on humid
  days?
• Lots of water vapor in the air is what makes a
  day humid. That leaves less room for more water
  vapor to form from evaporation.
• Which will evaporate more quickly water in a
  tall, thin glass or water in a wide, flat dish?
• The water in the wide, flat dish will evaporate
  more quickly because the surface area exposed to
  the air is greater.

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The Water Cycle Part 3 Questions Answers
Tall, thin glass
Flat, wide glass
300 mL
300 mL

• (About the last question) Why will one evaporate
  more quickly that the other?
• The water in the wide, flat glass (or dish) is
  spread out, so more of the water is exposed to
  the air. The tall, thin glass has less water
  exposed to the air. Notice that the amount of
  water is the same in both glasses (300 mL).

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The Water Cycle Part 3 Questions Answers

• How would you test this hypothesis Water always
  evaporates at the same rate?
• You could measure how long it takes for the same
  amount of water to evaporate from different sized
  containers under different conditions (hot day,
  cold day, humid, dry/not humid, rain, sun,
  etc.).
• Will water evaporate from a closed container,
  like a sealed pipe?
• Water may evaporate inside the container, but it
  will recondense (which means condense again) on
  the inside walls of the pipe. Therefore, no
  water will escape from the pipe. The water will
  continue to evaporate and recondense on the
  inside of the pipe (just like the water cycle).