Question

Which processes of the water cycle involve the movement of water in the liquid state?

Question 6 options:

evaporation and precipitation
surface runoff and condensation
precipitation and surface runoff
condensation and evaporation

Answer 1

Answer:

Surface runoff and condensation

Explanation:

Let's define each of the given processes in order to understand them better:

• evaporation is a process in which liquid phase transforms into a gas phase;
• precipitation is a process in which we produce a solid phase, usually this is the case when we precipitate a salt out of a solution, analogy of precipitation for water would be transformation from a liquid to a solid phase, such as freezing;
• surface runoff is a process in which water flows over the surface of a land without any change in its phase;
• condensation is a process in which a gas transforms into a liquid.

All in all, notice that surface runoff keeps water in its liquid state, while all the other three options consider phase change. The only phase change of interest is condensation: we produce liquid water from water vapor and then we can analyze its movement in the liquid state.