A Wonderleaf question
How does the water cycle move water around Earth?
a real page from the book
The water cycle moves water because sunlight, cooling air, and gravity keep changing where water can go. Sun warms liquid water into vapor, cold air gathers that vapor into clouds, and gravity pulls it down as rain, snow, or hail. Then water flows, soaks, freezes, or rises again.
A glass of water may contain molecules that have been in oceans, clouds, ice, soil, leaves, and rivers across vast stretches of time. Plants add their own quiet part by releasing vapor from leaves, so even a tree helps send water skyward.
Wonder words
- evaporation
- condensation
- precipitation
- groundwater
Try it out
Put a spoonful of water on a plate and check after dinner where it seems to have gone.
Read the whole picture book
Watercolour scenes, straight answers, about three minutes cover to cover.
Open the picture bookKeep wondering
- Why do mountains change the weather?
- Why do some places get monsoons?
- Why do clouds change shape?
- How do meteorologists predict the weather?
- Why is fog close to the ground?
- How are hurricanes and tornadoes different?
One more wonder: Why is space so dark?
And the next question?
Ask anything — Wonderleaf writes and illustrates a picture book for it. That's the whole idea.
Ask your own questionThe next wonder, by email
A new question goes up every Sunday evening. We email it to you Monday morning, free to read that week.
One wonder a week, nothing else, ever. Unsubscribe in one click.