Question

Write a paragraph that describes the path that one drop of water takes as it moves through the water cycle. In your paragraph, include at least two changes in the form of water.

Answer 1

A single drop might begin on the surface of the ocean, where the sun heats it and it evaporates (changing from liquid to gas) and rises as water vapor into the air. As the vapor cools it condenses (gas to liquid) into a tiny droplet in a cloud, and eventually that droplet grows heavy enough to fall as precipitation—perhaps as rain or, if it is colder, as snow. If it falls as snow it can freeze into a glacier or snowpack (liquid to solid) and remain there for years until warming causes it to melt (solid to liquid) and flow as meltwater into a stream. The stream carries the water back to a river and finally to the ocean, where the drop can be warmed and evaporate again, continuing the cycle.