Apologia Physical Science Module 5

Front 1

Define hydrosphere.

Back 1

The sum of all water on a planet

Front 2

Define hydrologic cycle.

Back 2

The process by which water is continuously exchanged between earth's various water sources

Front 3

Define transpiration.

Back 3

Evaporation of water from plants

Front 4

Define condensation.

Back 4

The process by which a gas turns into a liquid

Front 5

Define precipitation.

Back 5

Water falling from the atmosphere as rain, snow, sleet, or hail

Front 6

Define distillation.

Back 6

Evaporation and condensation of a mixture to separate out the mixture's individual components

Front 7

Define residence time.

Back 7

The average time a given particle will stay in a given system

Front 8

Define salinity.

Back 8

A measure of the mass of dissolved salt in a given mass of water

Front 9

Define firn.

Back 9

A dense, icy pack of old snow

Front 10

Define water table.

Back 10

The line between the water-saturated soil and the soil that is not saturated with water

Front 11

Define percolation.

Back 11

The process by which water moves downward in the soil, toward the water table

Front 12

Define adiabatic cooling.

Back 12

The cooling of a gas that happens when the gas expands with no way of getting more energy

Front 13

Define cloud condensation nuclei.

Back 13

Small airborne particles upon which water vapor condenses to form clouds

Front 14

Suppose you are given a sample of water taken from somewhere in earth's hydrosphere.

a. Would it most likely be saltwater or freshwater?

b. If it is freshwater, where did it most likely come from?

c. If the person who collected the sample tells you it is freshwater that originally came from a liquid source, where did it most likely come from?

Back 14

a. It would most likely be saltwater. After all, more than 97% of the earth's water is ocean water, so the most likely source for water is the ocean.

b. If it is freshwater, it most likely came from an iceberg or glacier, since that's the largest source of freshwater on the planet.

c. If the person tells you it is from a liquid source, it is most likely groundwater, because groundwater is the largest source of liquid freshwater.

Front 15

Water that was originally in a plant ends up in a cloud. What two processes of the hydrologic cycle caused it to be transferred in that way?

Back 15

Transpiration and condensation put the water into the cloud. Since it was in a plant, the only way to get it into the atmosphere is by transpiration. At that point, however, it is water vapor, not in a cloud. To be in a cloud, the water vapor must condense.

Front 16

Rain that hits the land can travel as a liquid into a lake, river, stream, or ocean in two different ways. What are they?

Back 16

Rain on the land can get into another water source via surface runoff or groundwater flow. If the rain never really gets absorbed by the soil, it becomes surface runoff. If it gets absorbed by the soil and enters into the groundwater, it will get to another water source by groundwater flow.

Front 17

Suppose a scientist studies two groundwater sources. The first is an underground river that flows quickly into a large lake. The second is a large basin of underground water that moves at a much slower rate towards a small pond. Which groundwater source has the longest residence time?

Back 17

Residence time measures how long a single molecule of water stays in a water source. The slower the water source exchanges water with other sources, the longer the residence time. Thus, the slow-moving groundwater source will have the longest residence time because groundwater must flow into another source. If it flows slowly, it will take a long time to transfer water.

Front 18

Suppose you analyzed the salinity of three samples of ocean water. One was taken from deep in the ocean, one was taken from near the surface, and one was taken from a place near where a large river emptied into the ocean. If the salinities of samples 1, 2, and 3 were 37 grams per kilogram, 25 grams per kilogram, and 35 grams per kilogram, respectively, which sample was taken near the river?

Back 18

Sample 2 was taken from the place near the river. The other two salinities are at or above the average salinity of the oceans. Sample 2's salinity, however, is significantly lower. This means it must be near a place where freshwater dilutes the salt concentration.

Front 19

If a lake were completely isolated from all rivers and streams so that the only way it could get rid of water was by evaporation, would it most likely be a freshwater or saltwater source?

Back 19

It would be a saltwater source. If evaporation is the only way the lake loses water, it can never get rid of any salt that it gets. So salts keep building up, making the lake a saltwater lake.

Front 20

A sailor brings you a chunk of ice that he thinks came from an iceberg. Based on the description of what he saw, however, you think that it might have been a large chunk of sea ice. How could you tell whether the ice is from an iceberg or from sea ice?

Back 20

Melt the ice and taste the water. If it is salty, it came from sea ice. If it is not salty, it came from an iceberg.

Front 21

You are studying a sample of soil and want to know if it came from above or below the water table. What could you do to determine this?

Back 21

Add some additional water to the soil. If the soil absorbs the water, it came from above the water table. If the soil cannot absorb the water, it came from below the water table. Remember, soil below the water table is saturated. If the soil absorbs water, it is not saturated and therefore is not from below the water table.

Front 22

In a certain region, the depth of the water table is measured. If there is a lot less rain than usual over the summer, what will happen to the depth of the water table?

Back 22

The depth of the water table will increase. The water table separates saturated soil from unsaturated soil. With little rain, groundwater flow will deplete the saturated soil faster than percolation will replace it, and soil that used to be saturated will become unsaturated. That means the water table will be deeper than before.

Front 23

Suppose you have a balloon whose volume you can change. You inflate it to a volume of 1 liter and measure the temperature of the gas inside. You then very quickly compress the balloon so that its volume is only 0.5 liters. What happens to the temperature of the gas inside?

Back 23

The temperature will increase. Since air cools when it expands, it will warm when it is compressed, unless energy is removed in the process.

Front 24

Random Riddle!

If a blue house is made out of blue bricks, and a red house is made out of red bricks, and a pink house is made out of pink bricks, and a black house is made out of black bricks, what is a green house made of?

Back 24

Glass.

Front 25

Random Riddle!

What do you put in a toaster?

Back 25

Bread.

Front 26

Random Riddle!

Without using a calculator - You are driving a bus from London to Milford Haven in Wales . In London , 17 people get on the bus. In Reading , six people get off the bus and nine people get on. In Swindon, two people get off and four get on. In Cardiff , 11 people get off and 16 people get on. In Swansea , three people get off and five people get on. In Carmathen, six people get off and three get on. You then arrive at Milford Haven.

What was the name of the bus driver?

Back 26

It was YOU!

Front 27

What kind of water makes up the majority of earth's water supply?

Back 27

The vast majority of water on he earth is saltwater, since more than 97% of the earth's water supply is in the ocean.

Front 28

What is the largest source of freshwater on the planet?

Back 28

The largest source of freshwater is the icebergs and glaciers on the planet.

Front 29

What is the largest source of liquid freshwater on the planet?

Back 29

The largest source of liquid freshwater is groundwater.

Front 30

In the hydrologic cycle, name the ways water can enter the atmosphere.

Back 30

Water can enter the atmosphere through evaporation and transpiration.

Front 31

Wen a raindrop hits the ground, name three ways it can eventually end up in a river.

Back 31

If the raindrop never really soaks into the soil, it can end up in a river via surface runoff. It could also soak into the groundwater and get to the river via groundwater flow.

Alternatively, it could go into the soil, be absorbed by a plant, transpired into the atmosphere, condensed into a cloud, and precipitated into the river.

It could also be evaporated before it soaks into the ground, condensed into a cloud, and precipitated into the river. That's four answers, but you only need three of them.

Front 32

What process in the hydrologic cycle puts soil moisture into the atmosphere?

Back 32

Transpiration takes water from the soil and puts it in the atmosphere, because plants absorb the soil moisture and then put it into the atmosphere via transpiration.

Front 33

In which body of water would the residence time be shorter, a quickly moving river or a lake that has no river outlets?

Back 33

The residence time in the river is shorter. The residence time will be shorter wherever water is quickly exchanged with other sources.

Front 34

What must a lake have in order for it to be a freshwater lake?

Back 34

A lake must have a way to get rid of water other than just evaporation. This usually is accomplished when the lake feeds a river or stream. If evaporation is the only way of getting rid of water, the salts that the lake recieves will become concentrated, making saltwater.

Front 35

Why is the salinity of the ocean evidence that the earth is not billions of years old?

Back 35

The oceans are not salty enough for the earth to be billions of years old. Since salt accumulates in the oceans, the older the earth is, the saltier the oceans will be. Calculations indicate that even assuming he oceans had no salt to begin with, it would take, at most, 62 million years (not billions of years!) to make the oceans as salty as they are now.

Front 36

If you asted melted sea ice, would it taste like freshwater or saltwater?

Back 36

Melted sea ice would taste like saltwater, because salt is incorporated into sea ice when it freezes.

Front 37

Where do icebergs come from?

Back 37

Icebergs come from glaciers. If a glacier moves to the sea, it can break apart and float away as icebergs.

Front 38

Where do glaciers come from?

Back 38

Glaciers start on mountains as the result of snow that never completely melts in the summer. If enough snow piles up, the weight causes it to slide down the mountain as a glacier.

Front 39

What is the term for the process by which a portion of a glacier breaks off and falls into the water?

Back 39

When a piece of a glacier breaks up and falls into the ocean, we call it calving.

Front 40

The captain of a ship sees an iceberg and steers clear of it. Why is the captain still worried about a collision?

Back 40

The captain is worried because 90% of the iceberg is underwater and therefore not visible. The captain steered clear of the visible part, but the underside of the boat could still hit the part that is underwater.

Front 41

Suppose you studied two areas of land colse to one another. In the first, there are a lot of trees. In the second, there are almost no trees at all. Other than that, the two areas seem identical. they have the same kind of grass and experience the same weather. Which one has the deeper water table?

Back 41

The water table will be deeper in the area with lots of trees.

Front 42

If no energy is added to air, what happens to the temperature when the air expands?

Back 42

The air will cool as it expands. That's what adiabatic cooling is all about.

Front 43

Will fog be thicker in a smoky area or in an area free of smoke?

Back 43

Like the cloud in Experiment 5.3, the fog will be thicker in the smoky area.

Front 44

What kind of cooling is responsible for most cloud formation?

Back 44

Like the cloud in Experiment 5.3, adiabatic cooling accounts for most cloud formation.

Front 45

A bright student notes that with a few modifications, a refrigerator can become a "hot box," keeping things warm instead of cold. Explain.

Back 45

A refrigerator compresses a gas, which heats the gas up, and then it allows the gas to expand and any liquid to evaporate, which cools the gas. The only reason the inside of the refrigerator is cold is that the pipes carrying the expanded gas are exposed to the inside of the refrigerator.

If you simply reversed the design so that the pipes carrying the gas after compression are on the inside of the refrigerator, the inside would heat up.

Front 46

What kind of water pollution is the hardest to track back to its source?

Back 46

Groundwater pollution is hard to track back because there is no easy way to tell where the polluted groundwater came from.