When sweat evaporates off our skin, I’ve been told we cool down because latent heat consumes some of the heat off our bodies. How does that work?

Question

How does the water take heat from the surface of our skin in the process of changing into water vapour? Does the water take heat out of the surrounding air above our skin as it changes also?

In: Physics

Answer 1

The water takes heat to increase in temperature and additional heat to phase change into water vapor.