ENS

Spring

How do you know that the Spring is coming?

When I went for a walk, I saw things which were different from January so basically things which were not in Winter. I went to the lake and saw the mice melted or at least half of the ice was melted. When I was coming back, I came from a forest and I saw flowers blooming. Some leaves were comming on some of the trees. I saw one pussy willow pajun kisa in Finnish. Yesterday I saw some birds humming. I think those birds don't come in winters and the snow melted a long time ago.

Equator (18.3.2020)

Why is it hot near the equator?
It is hotter near the equator because the equator is near to the sun and the sun's rays hit the earth's surface at a higher angle at the equator.
Why is it colder elsewhere compared to the equator?
Places which are not near to the equator are colder because they are not closer to the sun.
Explain in your own words in short:
Longitude: Longitudes are lines which goes vertically from North to South Pole.
Latitude: Latitudes are lines which goes horizontely from East to West.
Longitudes and Latitudes are imaginary lines formed to locate any point on the globe.
(Between each line there is a 4 minutes gap.) Random Information
The tropic of Cancer: The tropic of cancer is a line which is above the equator. It is in the Northern part.
The tropic of Capricorn: The tropic of Capricorn is a line which is underneath the equator. It is in the Southern part.
The prime meridian divides Earth into the Eastern Hemisphere to the Western Hemisphere and Northern Hemisphere to the Southern Hemisphere.

Water Cycle

Water cycle (veden kiertokulku)is also known as hydrological cycle, is the cycle which includes the constant movement of water in the Earth atmosphere system. The water cycle process involves many steps but the most important are evaporation (haihtuminen), transpiration, condensation (tiivistyminen), precipitation (saademäärä), runoff (valuma) and collection (kokoelma). The water cycle describes how water evaporates from the water bodies present on the surface of the Earth. When the sun heats up these water bodies the water evaporates and forms water vapour. This vapour rises into the atmosphere. As water vapour rises, it cools and condenses into liquid and forms clouds. The water in the clouds falls back to the surface as rain or snow. This process is called precipitation.

Evaporation (haihtuminen)
Evaporation is the process in which liquid forms vapour. When the Sun heats up water bodies like lakes, rivers, ponds, and oceans the water evaporates to form water vapour. This means it changes from a liquid to a gas.

Transpiration (kuljetus)
Transpiration is the process by which trees and plants give out water to atmosphere by leaves.

Condensation (tiivistysminen)
Condensation is the process by which the water vapour becomes liquid. As the vapour rises up, it cools down and converts back to liquid forming cloud.

Presipitation (saademäärä)
Precipitation is the process by which the water in the clouds falls down to the surface of the Earth in the form of rain, snow, hail or sleet. This occurs when too much condensation happens and the water droplets become too heavy and big to hold in the clouds.

Collection (kokoelma)
The fallen precipitation is then collected in bodies of water such as rivers, lakes and oceans from where it will eventually evaporate back into the air. Then the whole cycle will be repeated.

Runoff (valuma)s land directly may flow across the ground and collect in the oceans, rivers or lakes. This water is called runoff.

Extra facts
About 75 percent of our planet is covered by water or ice.
The Earth’s water cycle began about 3.8 billion years ago when rain fell on a cooling Earth, forming the oceans.
The oceans hold about 97 percent of the water on Earth.


 
 


Diagram of the water cycle showing evaporation, condensation, and precipitation


Surface Tension (Pintajännitys)
Surface tension is a result where the surface of a liquid is strong. The surface can hold up a weight, and the surface of a water droplet holds the droplet together in a shape of a ball. Some small things can float on a surface because of surface tension, even though they normally could not float. Some small insects like water striders can run on the surface because of the surface tension. This phenomenon is caused by the molecules in the liquid being attracted to each other.

Capillary Action (Kapillaari-ilmiö)
Capillary action is a process in which a liquid like water, rises up something solid like a tube or into a material with a lot of small holes. This happens when 3 forces called cohesion (water molecules like to stay close together), adhesion (water molecules are attracted and stick to other substances and surface tension acts together. Plants and trees couldn't exist without capillary action. It helps bring water into roots. With the help of adhesion and cohesion, water can work it's way all the way up to the branches and leaves.

Water Solvent
solvent is simply a substance that can dissolve other molecules and compounds, which are known as solutes. Water is capable of dissolving a variety of diffrence substances like salt, sugar ETC. That is the reason it is a good solvent. Water is also called universal solvent because it dissolves the most substance in any liquid. It is important to every living things on Earth because wherever water goes, either through are bodies or through the ground, it take chemicals, minerals and nutriens. If you have stirred sugar into tea or coffee or any other water based drink then it means that you have seen the solvent properties of water in action. But water doesn't dissolves everything or not that well.

Sources
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/water-cycle/
Evaporation, Transipitation and Precipitation (book from online)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-2EoyDYamg
Learnwell ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES V (author:Aloke Kashyap)