wunder beta🌦️ Evaporation and the Water Cycle
Where does a puddle go when it dries? Follow water as it evaporates, forms clouds, and falls again on its never-ending journey around our planet.
What you’ll learn
- Where Does the Puddle Go?Explain evaporation as a liquid slowly turning into invisible water vapour.A drying puddle shows evaporation: the Sun's heat turns liquid water into an invisible gas called water vapour that floats into the air. The same thing dries wet clothes and hair. Warmth and moving air help water evaporate.
- The Water CycleDescribe the four stages of the water cycle and put them in order.Water travels in a never-ending loop called the water cycle. It evaporates from oceans and puddles, condenses into clouds, falls as precipitation like rain or snow, and collects in rivers and seas before starting again.
- Speeding Up EvaporationIdentify what speeds up evaporation and why the water cycle matters.Heat, wind, and a spread-out puddle all make water evaporate faster, so a warm, windy day dries things quickest. The water cycle gives us fresh rain, fills rivers, and recycles the same water around Earth again and again.
Questions this course answers
What is evaporation?
Evaporation is when a liquid slowly turns into a gas called water vapour, warmed by the Sun.
Why do wet clothes on a line dry out?
The water in the clothes evaporates, turning into vapour that floats away and leaves the clothes dry.
How do clouds form in the water cycle?
High in the cold sky, water vapour condenses into tiny droplets, and billions of droplets make a cloud.
What is it called when water falls from clouds as rain, snow, or hail?
Precipitation is when cloud droplets join, grow heavy, and fall as rain, snow, sleet, or hail.
After rain collects in rivers and seas, what happens next in the cycle?
Collected water evaporates again, so the water cycle keeps going round and round with no end.
Which day would dry a puddle the fastest?
Heat and wind both speed up evaporation, so a warm, windy day dries a puddle fastest.
Grounded in trusted sources
- NASA Climate Kids
- BBC Bitesize
- Britannica Kids
Every Wunder lesson is built from real, reputable sources — never invented.
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