Why does water take less time to boil at higher elevation?

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I get there’s less and less air pressure the closer you get to sea level, and therefore it requires less energy for water to boil, but how does air pressure correlate to energy? I have a tendency to think about things at the molecular level, and can’t seem to work this one out in my head.

In: Chemistry

9 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

So the state of matter is dictated by how close them molecules are to eachother. You can force molecules closer to eachother by lowering the temperature and/or raising the pressure and vice versa.

Think of it like you (temperature) and your brother (pressure) lifting (boiling) 100Kg of water. If your brother just stands there doing nothing (pressure remains at 1 atm) then you will have to do all the lifting (temperature has to raise to 100C). If your brother helps you (if pressure drops below 1 atm) then you no longer have to do all the lifting (temperature no longer has to go to 100C).

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