Eli5 How does water evaporate without ever reaching 100 degrees celsius?

Question

Eli5 How does water evaporate without ever reaching 100 degrees celsius?

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

Heat in this context is the energy of the individual molecules. The higher the temperature the more energy, and the easier it is for them to overcome their connection to the other molecules. But this can also happen at lower temperatures.

Since this effect also removes energy from the system this effectively cools it. To see this in action wrap a bottle in a wet towel & leave it out in the sun for 15+ minutes.