# 13.6 Humidity, evaporation, and boiling  (Page 4/9)

 Page 4 / 9

Freeze drying is a process in which substances, such as foods, are dried by placing them in a vacuum chamber and lowering the atmospheric pressure around them. How does the lowered atmospheric pressure speed the drying process, and why does it cause the temperature of the food to drop?

Decreased the atmospheric pressure results in decreased partial pressure of water, hence a lower humidity. So evaporation of water from food, for example, will be enhanced. The molecules of water most likely to break away from the food will be those with the greatest velocities. Those remaining thus have a lower average velocity and a lower temperature. This can (and does) result in the freezing and drying of the food; hence the process is aptly named freeze drying.

## Phet explorations: states of matter

Watch different types of molecules form a solid, liquid, or gas. Add or remove heat and watch the phase change. Change the temperature or volume of a container and see a pressure-temperature diagram respond in real time. Relate the interaction potential to the forces between molecules.

## Section summary

• Relative humidity is the fraction of water vapor in a gas compared to the saturation value.
• The saturation vapor density can be determined from the vapor pressure for a given temperature.
• Percent relative humidity is defined to be
$\text{percent relative humidity}=\frac{\text{vapor density}}{\text{saturation vapor density}}×\text{100}\text{.}$
• The dew point is the temperature at which air reaches 100% relative humidity.

## Conceptual questions

Because humidity depends only on water’s vapor pressure and temperature, are the saturation vapor densities listed in [link] valid in an atmosphere of helium at a pressure of $1\text{.}\text{01}×{\text{10}}^{5}\phantom{\rule{0.25em}{0ex}}{\text{N/m}}^{2}$ , rather than air? Are those values affected by altitude on Earth?

Why does a beaker of $\text{40}\text{.}0\text{º}\text{C}$ water placed in a vacuum chamber start to boil as the chamber is evacuated (air is pumped out of the chamber)? At what pressure does the boiling begin? Would food cook any faster in such a beaker?

Why does rubbing alcohol evaporate much more rapidly than water at STP (standard temperature and pressure)?

## Problems&Exercises

Dry air is 78.1% nitrogen. What is the partial pressure of nitrogen when the atmospheric pressure is $1\text{.}\text{01}×{\text{10}}^{5}\phantom{\rule{0.25em}{0ex}}{\text{N/m}}^{2}$ ?

$7\text{.}\text{89}×{\text{10}}^{4}\phantom{\rule{0.25em}{0ex}}\text{Pa}$

(a) What is the vapor pressure of water at $\text{20}\text{.}0\text{º}\text{C}$ ? (b) What percentage of atmospheric pressure does this correspond to? (c) What percent of $\text{20}\text{.}0\text{º}\text{C}$ air is water vapor if it has 100% relative humidity? (The density of dry air at $\text{20}\text{.}0\text{º}\text{C}$ is $1\text{.}\text{20}\phantom{\rule{0.25em}{0ex}}{\text{kg/m}}^{3}$ .)

Pressure cookers increase cooking speed by raising the boiling temperature of water above its value at atmospheric pressure. (a) What pressure is necessary to raise the boiling point to $\text{120}\text{.}0\text{º}\text{C}$ ? (b) What gauge pressure does this correspond to?

(a) $1\text{.}\text{99}×{\text{10}}^{5}\phantom{\rule{0.25em}{0ex}}\text{Pa}$

(b) 0.97 atm

What does mean ohms law imply
what is matter
Anything that occupies space
Kevin
Any thing that has weight and occupies space
Victoria
Anything which we can feel by any of our 5 sense organs
Suraj
Right
Roben
thanks
Suraj
what is a sulphate
Alo
Alo
the time rate of increase in velocity is called
acceleration
Emma
What is uniform velocity
Victoria
Greetings,users of that wonderful app.
how to solve pressure?
how do we calculate weight and eara eg an elefant that weight 2000kg has four fits or legs search of surface eara is 0.1m2(1metre square) incontact with the ground=10m2(g =10m2)
Cruz
P=F/A
Mira
can someone derive the formula a little bit deeper?
Bern
what is coplanar force?
what is accuracy and precision
How does a current follow?
follow?
akif
which one dc or ac current.
akif
how does a current following?
Vineeta
?
akif
AC current
Vineeta
AC current follows due to changing electric field and magnetic field.
akif
Abubakar
ok bro thanks
akif
flows
Abubakar
but i wanted to understand him/her in his own language
akif
but I think the statement is written in English not any other language
Abubakar
my mean that in which form he/she written this,will understand better in this form, i write.
akif
ok
Abubakar
ok thanks bro. my mistake
Vineeta
u are welcome
Abubakar
what is a semiconductor
substances having lower forbidden gap between valence band and conduction band
akif
what is a conductor?
Vineeta
replace lower by higher only
akif
convert 56°c to kelvin
Abubakar
How does a current follow?
Vineeta
A semiconductor is any material whose conduction lies between that of a conductor and an insulator.
AKOWUAH
what is Atom? what is molecules? what is ions?
What is a molecule
Is a unit of a compound that has two or more atoms either of the same or different atoms
Justice
A molecule is the smallest indivisible unit of a compound, Just like the atom is the smallest indivisible unit of an element.
Rachel
what is a molecule?
Vineeta
what is a vector
A quantity that has both a magnitude AND a direction. E.g velocity, acceleration, force are all vector quantities. Hope this helps :)
deage
what is the difference between velocity and relative velocity?
Mackson
Velocity is the rate of change of displacement with time. Relative velocity on the other hand is the velocity observed by an observer with respect to a reference point.
Chuks
what do u understand by Ultraviolet catastrophe?
Rufai
A certain freely falling object, released from rest, requires 1.5seconds to travel the last 30metres before it hits the ground. (a) Find the velocity of the object when it is 30metres above the ground.
Mackson
A vector is a quantity that has both magnitude and direction
Rufus
the velocity Is 20m/s-2
Rufus
derivation of electric potential
V = Er = (kq/r^2)×r V = kq/r Where V: electric potential.
Chuks
what is the difference between simple motion and simple harmonic motion ?
syed
hi
Peace
hi
Rufus
hi
Chip
simple harmonic motion is a motion of tro and fro of simple pendulum and the likes while simple motion is a linear motion on a straight line.
Muinat
a body acceleration uniform from rest a 6m/s -2 for 8sec and decelerate uniformly to rest in the next 5sec,the magnitude of the deceleration is ?
The wording not very clear kindly
Moses
6
Leo
9.6m/s2
Jolly
the magnitude of deceleration =-9.8ms-2. first find the final velocity using the known acceleration and time. next use the calculated velocity to find the size of deceleration.
Mackson
wrong
Peace
-3.4m/s-2
Justice
Hi
Abj
Firstly, calculate final velocity of the body and then the deceleration. The final ans is,-9.6ms-2
Muinat
8x6= 48m/-2 use v=u + at 48÷5=9.6
Lawrence
can i define motion like this motion can be define as the continuous change of an object or position
Any object in motion will come to rest after a time duration. Different objects may cover equal distance in different time duration. Therefore, motion is defined as a change in position depending on time.
Chuks