The document defines key terms related to the water cycle, including condensation, evaporation, transpiration, accumulation, precipitation, snow, rain, hail, and surface runoff. It explains that the sun causes evaporation of water which condenses and falls as precipitation like rain or snow and runs off surfaces, completing the cycle.

1. The Water Cycle By: David Rich

2. Condensation The act or process of reducing a gas or vapor to a liquid or solid form.

3. Evaporation Process by which radiant energy from the sun turns liquid water into a gas (water vapor).

4. Transpiration The passage of watery vapor through the skin or through any membrane or pore.

5. Accumulation The act of gathering and collecting.

6. Precipitation Falling products of condensation in the atmosphere, as rain, snow, or hail. The amount of rain, snow, hail, etc., that has fallen at a given place within a given period, usually expressed in inches or centimeters of water.

7. Snow A precipitation in the form of ice crystals, mainly of intricately branched, hexagonal form and often agglomerated into snowflakes, formed directly from the freezing of the water vapor in the air.

8. Rain Water that is condensed from the aqueous vapor in the atmosphere and falls to earth in drops more than 1/50 in.

9. Hail Showery precipitation in the form of irregular pellets or balls of ice more than 1/5 in.

10. Surface Runoff Surface runoff is water, from rain, snowmelt, or other sources, that flows over the land surface, and is a major component of the water cycle.