Water Cycle

How the Water Cycle Works.
I am learning to inform my audience through an explanation

By Aidan
What liquid has been on earth since the dinosaurs roamed and every human needs to survive? Yes, water. Did you know that three quarters of the earth is covered in water and from all that water 97 percent is salt water. That leaves only 3 percent of our water to be freshwater and only 1 percent is actually drinkable. But the water we have now, is the only water we have ever had. How is that possible, you may ask, well that’s because of the water cycle. The water cycle has three main stages. Evaporation, condensation and precipitation. These three stages make the water cycle possible and keep us alive. The first step of this of this interesting cycle is evaporation.

Evaporation is the first step of the water cycle. After it rains there are water puddles on the ground and water has fallen into lakes and streams. But after some time the puddles are gone and the ground is dry again. This is because the heat from the sun has heated the water, turning the water into steam and eventually into water vapor. Water vapor is the water from the ground, lakes and the ocean evaporating into the air. If you look at a boiling kettle you will be able to see the water turning into water vapor. At this moment, the atoms in the water get crazy and move super fast. This is because of the heat in the kettle boiling the water. When you see the water vapor disappearing it means that it is turning into gas. This is an example of evaporation. When the water rises, it leads us into condensation.

The process of condensation is when the gas forms together and makes clouds. The water vapor get cooler in the atmosphere and the vapor start turning into tiny water droplets again. The droplets reconnect and appear in the form of clouds. It's like when you take a hot shower. The vapor rising and water droplets collecting on the ceiling. When condensation happens, the gas in the clouds are cooling down. Then the water starts turning into a liquid again. The clouds then lead us into precipitation.

The third step of this interesting cycle is precipitation. When the gas cools down in the clouds the water changes back into a liquid, producing rains. Other possible forms of precipitation are snow, sleet and hail. If you get a see thru cup with boiling water and glad wrap with some ice on top you just might see rain in the cup. This is a good example of precipitation. When it rains the soil and streams collects the water which makes groundwater.

This is a complex but very easy cycle to understand. It starts when the water heats up through evaporation and forms clouds which lead to condensation and precipitation. If one of the stages are removed, there would be no water for us to drink and to use for our plants. Without water we would be in a lot of trouble. So it is important to not waste our water.