why does water turn into steam st 40°C

Question

For example a 40°c shower can turn water into water vapour even though the boiling point is 100°C

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

Water can go to vapor (which is the better term than steam here) at almost all temperatures, as long as the environment is not too humid.
That is called evaporation (while at 100°C the water is boiling).

Basically this works, because there are always some of the water particles fast enough (have enough energy), to leave the liquid and become vapor. With increasing temperature there are just more water particles which can do this, until at 100°C almost all particles can go to steam very quickly.

The remaining liquid cools down, when water evaporates (because it looses energy). That is the reason sweating cools us down. The sweat evaporates and cool downs our skin. And as you can see there, this works at every temperature.