What is the molecular difference between steam from a boiling pot and mist from a humidifier?

Question

It’s all coming from H2O, but what is changing the molecules from liquid to vapor in each exchange?

In: 4

Answer 1

There is no molecular difference at all, the only difference is in the temperature of the two. Steam is water that has been heated to over 100° C and cause to have a phase transition into water vapor. Your humidifier is encouraging evaporation, which is also a phase transition from a liquid into a vapor, however this phase transition happens below the boiling point of water.

There are several explanations for why water can evaporate below the boiling point, but I think the easiest way to think of it is to think of the water being dissolved by the air. The same way you don’t need to melt table salt to get it to dissolve into water, you don’t need to boil water to get it to dissolve into air