THE WATER CYCLE IN ACTION 💦

AIM: To observe the basic processes of the water cycle 💦

EQUIPMENT: 200mL beaker, watch glass, ice cubes, Bunsen burner, tripod, gauze mat

METHOD: 

1. Fill the beaker with approximately 100mL of water and place on a tripod over a Bunsen burner.

2. Fill the watch glass with a few pieces of ice and leave it on the bench.

3. Light the Bunsen and heat the water until it just starts to simmer. Do not boil the water!

4. Turn the Bunsen burner off and gently place the watch glass and ice on top of the beaker.

Fill the beaker with 100ml of water.

Light the bunsen burner.

When the water is simmering, turn off the bunsen burner and put the watch glass on top of the beaker.

There is water vapour clearly visible in the beaker.

The water then begins to condense by dripping.

OBSERVATIONS 💦

We let it heat up until it was brought to a simmer. Then we quickly placed the watch glass of ice on top and we got results immediately. Grey water vapour swirled around in the glass for a few minutes. After those minutes we noticed it was becoming more transparent. Water started dripping from the bottom and there was condensation around the beaker's walls. 

1. State the energy source that drives the water cycle. The energy source is the sun; although in our experiment it was an artificial heat, the Bunsen burner.

2. Is water vapour visible? Yes. The water vapour was swirling around in the beaker before it condensed back into water.

3. Outline two pathways by which water can enter the atmosphere.

a)  Evaporation

b)  Transpiration

4. Explain how water vapour in the atmosphere ends up returning to the surface of the Earth.
The water vapour in the atmosphere, after evaporating, ends up being so cold, that through the process of condensing, it falls to the Earth as precipitation (rain). 

5. List four types of precipitation 🌨️

a) rain 

b) snow 

c) sleet 
d) hail

6. Water 💦 is constantly being evaporated from the sea surface, but the sea level remains fairly constant. Explain why the sea level does not fall. 

Because water cannot escape the atmosphere, the sea level remains the same because no water is leaving, the water is simply going through the process of the water cycle constantly, so it can be being evaporated and precipitated at the same time in different regions

Evaporation - the process of water being converted into gas by heat and travelling upwards. This happened in the beaker.

Transpiration - When moisture travels up from the roots of a plant up into the atmosphere via the stomata (leaves)