Saturday, March 21, 2015

Condensation from the Atmosphere

Have you ever noticed the beads of water that form on a cold beverage container in warm humid weather?  Or been annoyed by the fog that obscures your bathroom mirror when you are ready to shave or apply makeup?  Or seen white clouds billowing out of the tailpipe of a car on a cold day? These are all examples of water vapor in the air condensing into a liquid.  In the first two cases, the liquid condensation had formed on a cool surface, but condensation also occurs any time that you can see clouds, fog, or steam, as in the third case.  Water vapor is colorless and transparent, so when you can see a cloud, it is visible because of light reflecting off of tiny droplets of liquid.  In other words, condensation has already occurred by the time that you can see anything.