It's a hot summer day and you're outside, hanging with your friends. You can't see it, but the temperature causes water in puddles, ponds, lakes, oceans and the ground to turn into water vapor and rise into the sky. This conversion of liquid water into a gas, called water vapor, is evaporation.
The warm water vapor rises high into the atmosphere. Up there, the air is much colder. As the water vapor cools, heat energy is released. The cold air turns the water vapor back into tiny droplets of liquid water, much smaller than raindrops. This conversion of gas (water vapor) into liquid (water) is called condensation.
The cooled water droplets form clouds. Warm, rising air currents bring more and more water vapor skyward, while keeping the tiny water drops that make up the cloud from falling to the ground. Eventually, the mass of the clouds becomes too large for the rising air to hold, so gravity wins the battle: Large drops of rain pour from the cloud and fall to Earth below, in a process called precipitation.
What is the process by which water vapor cools into tiny water droplets called?
A
precipitation
B
condensation
C
conversion
D
evaporation