Evaporation

Learning Objectives

  • Define evaporation.
  • Define condensation.
  • Describe the effect of temperature on the rate of evaporation.

Examples

A swamp cooler relies on evaporation to cool a building

What is that box on the house’s roof?

On the roof of the house in the picture above is a device known as a “swamp cooler.” This piece of equipment traces its origin back to the ancient Egyptians who hung wet blankets across the doors of their homes. As the warm air passed through the blankets, water would evaporate and cool the air. The royalty went one step further and had servants fan wet cloths over jugs of water to get more evaporation and cooling.

The origin of the term “swamp cooler” is not known – they certainly don’t work in a swamp. Best conditions for cooling include a high temperature (over 80°F) and a low humidity (preferably less than 30%). These coolers work well in desert areas, but don’t provide any cooling in the humid areas of the country.

Evaporation

A puddle of water left undisturbed eventually disappears. The liquid molecules escape into the gas phase, becoming water vapor. Vaporization is the process in which a liquid is converted to a gas. Evaporation is the conversion of a liquid to its vapor below the boiling temperature of the liquid. If the water is instead kept in a closed container, the water vapor molecules do not have a chance to escape into the surroundings and so the water level does not change. As some water molecules become vapor, an equal number of water vapor molecules condense back into the liquid state. Condensation is the change of state from a gas to a liquid.

Evaporation occurs when liquid turns into gas, while condensation occurs when gas turns into liquid

Figure 13.8

Evaporation (A) and condensation (B).

In order for a liquid molecule to escape into the gas state, the molecule must have enough kinetic energy to overcome the intermolecular attractive forces in the liquid. Recall that a given liquid sample will have molecules with a wide range of kinetic energies. Liquid molecules that have this certain threshold kinetic energy escape the surface and become vapor. As a result, the liquid molecules that remain now have a lower average kinetic energy. As evaporation occurs, the temperature of the remaining liquid decreases. You have observed the effects of evaporative cooling. On a hot day, the water molecules in your perspiration absorb body heat and evaporate from the surface of your skin. The evaporating process leaves the remaining perspiration cooler, which in turn absorbs more heat from your body.

A given liquid will evaporate more quickly when it is heated. This is because the heating process results in a greater fraction of the liquid’s molecules having the necessary kinetic energy to escape the surface of the liquid. The Figure below shows the kinetic energy distribution of liquid molecules at two temperatures. The numbers of molecules that have the required kinetic energy to evaporate are shown in the shaded area under the curve at the right. The higher temperature liquid (T 2 ) has more molecules that are capable of escaping into the vapor phase than the lower temperature liquid (T 1 ).

As temperature increases, the proportion of molecules that have sufficient energy to evaporate increases

Figure 13.9

Kinetic energy distribution curves for a liquid at two temperatures T 1 and T 2 . The shaded area is the molecules with enough kinetic energy to escape the liquid and become vapor.

Summary

  • Evaporation is the conversion of a liquid to its vapor below the boiling temperature of the liquid.
  • Condensation is the change of state from a gas to a liquid.
  • As the temperature increases, the rate of evaporation increases.

Practice

Use the link below to answer the following questions:

https://water.usgs.gov/edu/watercycleevaporation.html

  1. What is the primary pathway that water moves from the liquid state back into the water cycle as atmospheric water vapor?
  2. What percentage of the moisture in the atmosphere comes from evaporation?
  3. How long does a water molecule spend in the air after evaporation?
  4. What chemicals can be obtained from the Dead Sea?

Review

  1. Define vaporization.
  2. Define evaporation.
  3. Define condensation.
  4. How does temperature affect the rate of evaporation?

Glossary

  • condensation: The change of state from a gas to a liquid.
  • evaporation: The conversion of a liquid to its vapor below the boiling temperature of the liquid.
  • vaporization: The process in which a liquid is converted to a gas.