What is the Water Cycle?

Evaporation occurs when a liquid turns into a gas. This occurs in all kinds of places and in different ways.

A common example is after a rain storm when the sun is out, and water vapor starts to appear around the streets. That's the water evaporating from the ground into water vapor.

This same process happens when you boil water for food, the steam it creates is a form of heated water vapor caused by the added energy from the heat of the burner.

Condensation is a process where a gas turns into a liquid.

This occurs in clouds over time, as the water vapor in the cloud begins to cool down, the water starts to clump together, creating larger and larger droplets until it cannot be held any longer, and thus, it begins to rain.

A common occurrence of condensation is when you have a hot bath or shower, and the steam touches a cool window or mirror, the steam will turn into water droplets along the surface of the cool material.

Finally, Precipitation.

Precipitation occurs when too many water droplets begin to form, or the droplets become too large to be held up in the cloud. When this occurs, these droplets fall from said cloud in different forms.

Rain being the most common form, but there is also sleet, hail, and snow.