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A comment on In a surprising finding, light can make water evaporate without heat. Parent comment

Re:In a surprising finding, light can make water evaporate w... by farhanhubble on Thursday November 02, 2023 @09:12PM (#38123016)
I had this understanding too from university physics but now that I think about it why do we assume each molecule has to break away independently. Why can't lumps of molecules break away as long as the group has enough energy to sever bonds with the rest of the bulk?
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Re:In a surprising finding, light can make water evaporate w... by elil17 on Thursday November 02, 2023 @09:21PM (#38123098)
Well it’s not that it never happens, it’s just that it’s not particularly likely. Heat is disordered kinetic energy, so most often molecules won’t be traveling in the same direction.
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Re:In a surprising finding, light can make water evaporate w... by cyanydeez on Thursday November 02, 2023 @09:39PM (#38123274)
from my understanding, water is typically colloidal, so it would make sense that there's no symmetrical bonding to adjacent molecules and that could easily lead to groups being evaporated.

in many cases, layman's science is oversimplified for the benefit of college science. this might be the case

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