How does heat speed up evaporation of water?

Question

I know how evaporation works in general, water molecules escaping and such… but I can’t for the life of me figure out how heat makes that process faster

Help

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Answer 1

Heat is just energy.

Water molecules with more energy move around faster, which makes them collide with each other more violently.

On the top layer of the water, more molecules get bounced into the air due to these violent collisions. Think of it like popcorn popping, some of the kernels always go flying off across the room.

One of the very unique traits of water is just how much the molecules like sticking together. This is what gives water such amazing surface tension.

So, when there’s enough energy in the system to separate one molecule from the rest, the hard work is done. That molecule just goes off to do it’s own thing then.