What’s the difference between water boiling and it evaporating normally? Don’t both end up the same, ie. water turning into gas form?
In: 2
Imagine water molecules as some sticky, bouncy balls. They roll around on each other, but try to stick together. Sometimes a molecule will randomly move in a way that it bounces more than it sticks and leaves the liquid. That’s what we call evaporation. If you heat up the water, the molecules will get faster and the chance for them to bounce off increases. When the liquid boils, that means these molecules are moving so fast, they break free while still inside the liquid, which creates bubbles. If you cool the steam down, it will slow the movement of molecules, so they start to fall and stick together again, turning back into liquid. Cool it down even more, and they will eventually lose so much of their energy, they can’t even roll around on each other anymore, just stick together and kind of vibrate. That’s what ice does. If you heat it up, the vibrations get stronger and cause molecules to break off, but most of them won’t be fast enough to evaporate, they will be liquid again
Latest Answers