Evaporation is the process by which a liquid changes to a gas or vapor. Water, which has three states, requires energy or pressure to evaporate. Heat from the sun initiates the process in bodies of water, and high-energy molecules escape into the air, causing cooling.
Evaporation occurs when a liquid changes its state to form a gas or vapor. Most of what occurs on Earth is the transition from the liquid state of water to water vapor. While it sounds very simple, water is not only the most abundant compound on Earth, it’s also very complex. The amount of water on Earth never changes; it simply changes shape as it goes through what is known as the water cycle. Each stage involves several processes that are required to change the water into a new form.
Water has three different states: liquid, vapor and ice. Evaporation of water is the process by which it changes from liquid to vapor. To do this, water requires one of several conditions to be present. For a body of water such as a lake, river, or ocean to allow some of its water molecules to pass from a liquid and be released as water vapor into the air, heat from the sun must be present to initiate the process. A change in energy or pressure from some source is always required for this process to occur.
Water molecules contained in the same body of water, such as an ocean, do not have the same energy level. Individual molecules with higher energy will break away from other molecules as the sun provides heat, or energy, to the entire body of water. This is how evaporation occurs in the oceans. The more energy supplied, the stronger some molecules become and the easier it is for them to break the bond with water molecules with less kinetic energy. This is why boiling water also causes it to turn from liquid to vapor. The heat provided by the stove provides the energy that allows some water molecules to escape into the air.
Another example is human sweat. When the human body heats up with exertion, humans sweat, so the sweat that coats the skin evaporates to cool the body. This occurs because high-energy molecules escape into the air in the form of water vapor, and some of the heat used in the process also escapes. As a result, the skin and body get cold.
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