how does condensation work?
In: Chemistry
air always has some level of moisture in it (humidity). When the air doesn’t have much moisture, it’s low humidity. When the air has a lot of moisture in it, it’s high humidity. There is a limit to how much moisture air can hold – at this point, we say the air is “saturated”.
Temperature and humidity have an inverse relationship – as temperature increases, humidity decreases, and as temperature decreases, humidity increases.
So, as you cool air down, you’re increasing the amount of humidity in it. It approaches the point where it’ll become saturated with moisture (this is called the “dew point”). If you continue to cool it down past the dew point temperature, the air cannot hold the water content anymore, and so the water content starts to “leak out” of the air (condensation).
There’s umidity in the air, which is basically vapor.
When the temperature goes down beyond a certain trashold, this water vapor turns back into liquid water and gathers into the droplets you see at a glass of cold water or rain.
It’s just the water in the air that has been cooled down enough to become liquid and gather.
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