Is sweat partly condensation?

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Someone tells me that on humid days, sweat that makes skin feel sticky or damp is mostly just condensation and not actually sweat. But that sounds like BS, because body temperature is almost always going to be hotter than ambient temperature, so condensation can’t form.

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Lets say you weren’t sweating at all, your skin would have to be colder than the dew point for water to condense on it. In this scenario you’d die very quickly because you would be unable to cool off, you’d basically be steaming yourself.

When you get wet with sweat, it’s because the air cannot absorb the water faster than you’re secreting it. Once the air absorbs the water it can carry, you need to move it away from your skin and replace it with drier air. This process is much easier when there’s low humidity and some wind.

Technically, there’s transfer of water molecules both ways across the air-liquid boundary, but there’s more water evaporating than condensing.

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