Katie designed an experiment to show a water cycle process. The steps of the experiment are shown below. Pour some water into a small plastic cup. Place the cup carefully into a dry zip lock bag. Zip the bag and keep it in the sun. Observe that the level of water in the cup decreases after one day. Which of these processes in the water cycle is demonstrated by Katie in the experiment?

Explanation: The water cycle refers to the cyclic process, how water is transferred from one form to the other. Water from the oceans, seas and rivers gets evaporated due to heating, and rises up into the atmosphere forming water vapor, and in association with that, some of the water is also released into the atmosphere from the plants by the process of evapo-transpiration. This later then gets accumulated in the atmosphere and condenses and falls back as rain.

The water that falls on the surface of the earth again undergoes various processes. Some part of the water gets percolated through the ground and mixes up with the ground water. Some water flows as surface run of and mixes with the rivers and lakes that ultimately mixes up with the ocean water and some of the water is absorbed by the plant roots.

This maintains a cyclic process and this circulating pattern of water plays a significant role in the various weather patterns.

Thus, in the given condition, katie's experiment showed the process of evaporation, where she collected the water in a zip lock bag. The water decreases due to the evaporation process.