Why does the boiling point of liquids decrease with decreasing pressure?
In: Chemistry
The boiling point of a liquid is when its internal pressure meets and exceeds the pressure of the atmosphere above it.
There are two ways of achieving this. The traditional way is you heat up the liquid increasing its internal pressure until it is greater than that of the atmosphere.
The second ways is you can reduce the pressure of the atmosphere (e.g. by putting it in a vacuum) until the atmospheric pressure is less than that of the liquid. This is a not uncommon experiment in HS chemistry classes; you can literally boil away the water while also freezing it.
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