Water cycle: The circulation of water from the Earth's surface to the atmosphere and back to the Earth is called the water cycle.
The driving force behind the water cycle is the heat of the Sun.
Water as the universal solvent:
Water dissolves a large number of substances. They can be solids, liquids and gases. It is therefore,called the universal solvent. Thus, it can dissolve solute particles from various sources.
Important definition:
Solvent: The liquid in which a substance dissolved is called the solvent.
Solute: The substance which gets dissolved in a solvent is the solute.
Solution: The resultant mixture obtained when the solute has dissolved in the solvent is called the solution.
Assignments:
a.What is water cycle?
b. Why water is called the universal solvent?
c. Define the following terms : (i) Solute (ii) Solvent (iii) Solution