Why does humidity in the heat make you feel hotter, but if you spray yourself with a fine mist of water in the heat, you feel cooler for a minute?
In: Earth Science
Imagine a glass of water with some sugar in it. If there’s already a lot of sugar dissolved in the water, it will be harder to dissolve more. Imagine if the act of dissolving sugar in water made the water cold, but once you have a lot of sugar dissolved, because it becomes harder to dissolve more, at a certain point you can’t keep the water cold.
When water turns from liquid to gas, whether by boiling or evaporation, it takes some heat with it. If there is a lot of water in the air, it is harder for more to evaporate, so your sweat just stays on you and can’t take the heat anywhere. If it’s not too humid and you put water on your body, it will then evaporate and take heat with it. Also, the water may be colder than the air temp, so that can also cool you.
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