Steam is formed at 100°C but I see “steam” being produced at less than that temperature. What is that and why isn’t it steam?
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That steam you see could be condensed water on particles in the air, but it’s also important to note that there will still be some water vapor in the air at 80-90 C. Temperature is a measurement of the average kinetic energy of molecules in a system. At any temperature there will be some energetic/fast molecules and there will be some nonenergetic/slow molecules. The higher the temperature, the more fast molecules there are and the faster they are. At any temperature there will be some exceptionally fast molecules that is able to vaporize. As the temperature gets higher more of the molecules will be fast enough to vaporize. The boiling temperature is the temperature where the pressure created by the vaporized molecules is equal to the outside pressure. At 100C almost all the molecules in water are vaporizing, but at 80C fewer but still some molecules are able to vaporize. So the steam you are seeing is also still just water!
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