Answer 1:
Hello! This question is a bit complicated and I
actually cannot answer it without knowing a bit
more about the environment that the experiment
took place in. There are a lot of factors that
affect the evaporation speed of water , but
before we get to that, let’s try to understand
what evaporation is.
Evaporation is the process where liquid
water slowly turns into water vapor. It is a
little different than boiling, because the water
doesn’t have to be really hot (212 Fahrenheit) to
evaporate, but it does to boil. Evaporation has to
do with the slow process of individual water
molecules escaping from the liquid source.
The actual mechanism for this is a bit complicated
so we’ll just simplify it and say that it requires
heat and is a slow process.
So now to tackle the question: what factors
influence evaporation? The most basic
variable we need to know is: how hot is the
lamp? The lamp is the heat source that
will cause the water to evaporate as the water
gains energy. The hotter the lamp, the faster the
water will evaporate. In addition to knowing the
temperature of the lamp, we need to know the
temperature of the water. If the water was
warm initially, it will need less heat energy to
evaporate, whereas if the water was cold, it will
need more energy. We also need to know how much
wind is above the water that we are trying to
evaporate. This seems a little odd so let’s think
about why wind might be a factor. I mentioned that
evaporation happens when individual water
molecules escape the liquid, so if wind is
blowing, it makes it much easier for single
molecules to be swept away from the liquid.
Wind speeds up evaporation! The last
factor that we will consider is the air
humidity.
Humidity is a measurement of how
much water is in the air. If there is a lot of
water in the air (high humidity) the air is
already crowded with water so it is harder for
water to evaporate. When the air is dry (low
humidity), evaporation is much quicker. So in
summary the following factors will speed up
evaporation: warm water, hot lamp, high wind, and
low humidity. Thanks for the question!
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