Questions tagged [condensation]
The condensation tag has no summary.
134 questions
10 votes
2 answers
2k views
Why does desiccant cool down air?
I put a lot of desiccant inside a large airtight container and left it for a while, then I opened it and put my hand inside, I can feel the air is much cooler, why is that?
- 227
1 vote
0 answers
61 views
What are the contributions to heat transfer in a steam heater? Am I double-counting something? [closed]
Suppose we have a vessel of water being stirred (a CSTR), and the water is being heated by a pipe carrying steam passing through the water. The steam enters as saturated vapour and leaves as saturated ...
- 278
0 votes
2 answers
145 views
Why don't we find capillary condensation all around us?
Capillary condensation is a phenomenon where condensation happens even in an unsaturated vapour provided that the radius of curvature of the condensate surface is sufficiently small, for example in ...
- 1,529
6 votes
2 answers
386 views
Why don't liquid aerosols rapidly vanish by evaporation?
Liquid aerosols are known to be relatively stable. However, given their immense surface area and tiny volume, we would expect them to rapidly vanish by evaporation. Why are liquid aerosols ...
- 1,529
-3 votes
1 answer
99 views
Energetically, how can evaporation water rise to a specific height/layer in the air then form "stable" (as in molecules grouped together) clouds? [closed]
When water evaporates due to sunlight, it rises up in the sky. This requires energy. What effect provides this energy? If all gas molecules were identical, there would be no reason for any to rise. ...
- 103
0 votes
0 answers
65 views
Effect of condensation pressure drop in open flow
If saturated gas flows through a tube that is being cooled, the gas will start to condense, forming droplets at some point in the tube. Looking at the individual condensation "cells", I ...
- 3
0 votes
2 answers
225 views
Gas and Vapour liquefaction
I am a bit confuse in the first statement. I think the statement is implying vapour as 'former' and gas as 'latter'. Am I correct here? But gas can be liqufied with pressure alone below the critical ...
39 votes
2 answers
6k views
Why doesn't the windshield fog up where my kid drew on it with her fingers?
A few weeks ago the inside of my car windshield was fogged up and my older kid used her finger to draw a face in the condensation. Weeks later, the windshield fogged up again, and the face became ...
- 2,725
1 vote
0 answers
148 views
Enthalpy and entropy at phase transition
The second law of thermodynamics states, that entropy (of the universe) always increases. Entropy can, however, be (locally) reduced when energy is provided. At the phase transition from a relatively ...
- 11
2 votes
1 answer
112 views
Why $|H_1(\Sigma,\mathbb{Z}_N)|$ can be interpreted as an 1+1d $\mathbb{Z}_2$ gauge theory?
I am reading the article https://arxiv.org/abs/2204.02407, and I am struggling with the definition of a condensation defect, which is given by \begin{align} S(\Sigma)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{|H_1(\Sigma,\...
- 471
1 vote
4 answers
922 views
Why does dew only fall on horizontal surfaces?
I noticed that dew only falls on horizontal surfaces, while vertical surfaces remain dry. But dew is the condensation of water vapor contained in the air. And for the condensation process, the ...
- 151
1 vote
1 answer
2k views
Why is condensation point of water same temperature as boiling point?
I am a complete layman and I read somewhere that the condensation point temperature of water is 100°C, same as boiling point temperature. Thinking intuitively, this doesn't make sense to me. Doesn't ...
-1 votes
1 answer
114 views
Photon radiation from condensing water
Does water vapor generate electromagnetic radiation/photons when it condenses into water droplets? I know that gas water molecules need a condensation particle to combine into water droplets. A pair ...
8 votes
3 answers
415 views
Condensation on the side of a cloud chamber
I'm trying to build a cloud chamber using a peltier thermoelectric cooler. So far, I've managed to detect some particles, but their trails are very weak (I've used a high voltage generator, about 4kV, ...
- 735
1 vote
1 answer
368 views
Clausius-Clapeyron relation for high pressures
I can see that the Clausius-Clapeyron relation depends on the change in specific volume $\Delta v = v_g (1 - \frac{v_c}{v_g}) = v_g - v_c$, with $v_c$ equal to the volume of the condensed phase and $...
- 357