In a surprising finding, light can make water evaporate without heat

Re:In a surprising finding, light can make water evaporate w... by elil17 on Thursday November 02, 2023 @07:04PM (#38121643)

You’re thinking about it right if you’re zoomed into the surface of the water plus a few millimeters above it. But the molecule clusters themselves evaporate after that, which pulls heat from the air.

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Re:In a surprising finding, light can make water evaporate w... by JohnFen on Thursday November 02, 2023 @10:00PM (#38123435)

Gotcha. That heat from the air is also energy input that has to be counted, so it still would equal out in the end, right?

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Re:In a surprising finding, light can make water evaporate w... by elil17 on Friday November 03, 2023 @01:18AM (#38124830)

Exactly

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Re:In a surprising finding, light can make water evaporate w... by JohnFen on Friday November 03, 2023 @01:37AM (#38124948)

So a good analogy might be that it's like a tiny version of what happens in an atomizer. It takes more energy to evaporate water than to turn the same amount of water into a very fine mist. The droplets will then evaporate on their own, using an amount of energy equal to the difference between evaporation and misting.

Thank you, I've got a little clearer view of my world.

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