Definition of Condensation – What is condensation? If you have ever left your house to breathe fresh morning air, you are sure to have seen water droplets sticking to the windows of houses or motorized vehicles and leaves at dawn when dawn has not yet arrived. The water droplets that seem to stick together are what we call dew.
A natural phenomenon that is natural in the form of a beautiful natural process and is always a calming and comfortable thing to look at. For those of you who like to climb mountains, it is commonplace to see dew in the morning clinging to the trees at an altitude of several thousand meters above sea level.
Especially if you are in a hamlet that is still surrounded by natural scenery in the form of forests, hills, and tea plantations, you will easily find lots of morning dew resting on tree trunks and leaves.
When we were children, we must have played with our ignorance playing with the dew that sticks to the leaves, not only because it looks quite unique, the dew that comes in the morning also indicates that the air feels fresher and clearer than any water. and what’s in the bathroom tub, especially the boiled water in the house cup.
The average young child prefers to figure out how to transfer this moisture to the surface from the other side of their hand without trying to break it. Sadly, because dew is essentially water-based, the dew that had been trying to maintain its round shape suddenly broke easily into water droplets.
So, when discussing the matter of morning dew, have you ever tried to think, where do these little round dewdrops come from? In short like this, the round grains that we call morning dew appear due to a process called condensation which is carried out naturally by nature.
Hearing the term condensation, you must not be very familiar with this term. Granted, condensation wasn’t a term that many people knew about, so it was rare for anyone to know about it.
Even worse, maybe your friends who used to go to school majoring in natural sciences may not know at all or don’t remember this one term, or the worst situation is that they have never even studied and understood the context of condensation in their learning at school. Formerly?
If you yourself are one of the many people who also don’t understand the context of condensation, you are very lucky because on this topic we will try to discuss it. So the big question is, what is condensation? Let’s look together at the following explanation of what condensation is!
What Is Condensation?
Condensation is the process by which the state changes from gas to liquid. Condensation, also called condensation and the opposite of evaporation or vaporization process. For example, if a glass with a lid is filled with hot water, the glass lid used will gradually condense. Condensation occurs when the vapor cools down to a liquid, as described in the book Bioenergy and Biorefinery .
However, it can also occur when a vapor is compressed into a liquid (i.e., the pressure is increased) or when it is subjected to a combination of cooling and compression. The liquid condensed from the steam is called condensate. Mirror condensation is one of the most common forms of condensation. The same thing happens in the bathroom when humidity or body heat or the water heater condenses on the cold mirror.
The Process of Condensation
The process of condensation occurs when water vapor in the air flows over a surface that is colder than the dew point of the water vapor. Air temperature plays an important role in the condensation process. For example, condensation in the morning. Dew is water vapor that turns into water droplets. This condensation or condensation occurs at night when the air is cooler.
At night, the temperature drops below the dew point, so the water vapor cannot be held in and becomes dew. The dew point is the temperature at which condensation occurs. Temperatures can naturally reach or drop below the dew point, which is common at night. As a result, lawns, cars and homes are often flooded in the morning.
Condensation can also cause water droplets to fall on the exterior of vehicle or vehicle windshields and cold items. When warm air meets a cold surface, it reaches the dew point and condensation occurs. This will allow the water to drip into the cool container or place.
Causes of Condensation
When condensation occurs indoors or where you live, there are at least three main triggers that also affect the process of forming these water droplets. In general, condensation can be caused by humidity inside your residence. Condensation occurs when the air in the room can no longer hold water vapor.
In addition, the low temperature at which moist air is in direct contact with surfaces in a cold room atmosphere. If the airflow is poor and there is no room for air circulation between hot and cold, moisture will build up in the room and condensation will increase.
Condensation is the process of changing state from gas to liquid. This natural process can occur for two reasons, namely when water vapor moves through a cooler surface and when water vapor is compressed.
1. Water vapor moves through a warm surface to a colder surface
The phenomenon of condensation occurs when water vapor flows over a surface that is colder than the dew point. The dew point is the temperature at which the condensation phenomenon occurs.
In this case, morning dew is an example of a condensation process. Because the temperature is much lower at night than during the day, the gas vapor is cooled. Then, as the temperature at night is much lower than during the day, the cooled vapor forms the dew that is visible the next morning.
This dew is usually easy to find on the grass and leaves around your house. As the nights get colder, the water vapor condenses, eventually forming morning dew.
2. When water vapor is compressed or subjected to temperature suppression
In the following situations, condensation may occur when the water vapor is compressed or compressed. When the vapor is pressurized, it returns to its liquid state. For example, if you try to pour hot water into a jar and place it on top of it, then the moisture from the hot water is compressed and cannot escape from the lid of the jar, causing water droplets to stick to the surface of the lid of the jar.
Another example of the condensation phenomenon is on energy drink cans. When you take the can out of the refrigerator, the outside of the can will cool down and a condensation phenomenon will form on the surface of the can, why does this happen?
This kind of event can happen because the temperature outside the refrigerator is much higher than inside the refrigerator. Cold steam that sticks inside the can eventually condenses and processes into water droplets on the surface of the can. In essence, this applies not only to soft drinks, but also to various containers and jars that have been stored in the refrigerator and taken out at a much warmer room temperature.
Types of Condensation
As an example where the condensation phenomenon itself occurs, we can easily find it around the area where we live. For example, the windows of four-wheeled vehicles fog up in the morning. Condensation can also be classified into two types, namely: condensation due to external factors and condensation due to internal factors.
1. Condensation due to external factors
External condensation is a type of condensation that occurs when moist air comes into direct contact with a cooler surface such as a car window. This event can occur when the surface temperature is below the dew point of the air. Therefore, the amount is proportional to the heat of the air in the room. The air dew point is the temperature at which the water vapor in the air condenses and a certain proportion of the water vapor and air becomes water.
2. Condensation due to internal factors
Condensation that occurs due to internal or indoor factors is a type of condensation that occurs due to excessive humidity in an enclosed space. This usually causes our windows to fog up. This internal condensation usually occurs at night due to excessive humidity and condensation on the windows of our homes.
Condensation Forms
Besides being able to be classified into two categories, the results of the condensation event are further divided into several forms. Even though we cannot directly witness the process of condensation, we can easily see the results of the condensation process that occurs every morning. So, what exactly are the results of this condensation event?
There are three forms of condensation that are most commonly encountered, namely dew, fog, and clouds. Here’s the explanation:
1. Dew
Dew which is one form of the result of the process of condensation. Dew is water droplets made of water vapor on a surface that is usually cooler. We can see it more often because of the process of creation when the temperature of an item drops below its dew point temperature.
Dew is the result of the most common and simple series of condensation occurrences. When you have seen dew resting on leaves and grass in the morning or perhaps on the surface of house windows and motorized vehicle glass, you may wonder to yourself where all this dew has come from.
So, as previously explained above, condensation is the result of a condensation process that is created when it is late in the day. The dew form itself is created when vapors in the earth’s atmosphere condense on cooler surfaces, which in turn condense on leaves, grass, and even building glass or motor vehicle glass.
2. Mist
Fog is a collection of gases that descend to the surface of the earth. This event can occur when rain falls from warm air temperatures to cooler air temperatures, and water vapor in cold air moves through its saturation point.
For example, fog at the foot of mountains or hills. This type of fog is formed when moist air descends on the other side of windy hills and mountains.
Fog is a kind of rare and unique event that we cannot witness every time. This is actually a common thing when you see that most of us live in cities that are polluted and have no trees. However, you can still see the fog covering the urban area early in the morning. Fog is most common in the morning or shortly after rain.
Fog is also the result of the condensation process. Just after rain or at dawn when dawn breaks, water vapor forms tiny droplets in the air. These tiny droplets have become known as nebulae. However, because there are so many tiny droplets of them, they can block your vision. The more tiny water droplets in the air, the more it blocks your line of sight.
Not as beautiful as it looks, fog can also harm people. Thick fog obscures visibility and makes it difficult to determine which path is correct, it is not uncommon for hikers to get lost twice. In addition to climbers, fog can also disturb motorcyclists and four-wheeled vehicle drivers, which sometimes leads to accidents.
Fortunately, most fogs only occur for a short period of time. The fog slowly clears as the sun rises. This is because the presence of the sun causes the temperature to rise, thereby making the tiny water droplets evaporate again and eventually disappear.
3. Clouds
Another form of condensation is clouds. A collection of tiny water droplets or ice crystals visible in the air. Clouds form when invisible water vapor in the air condenses into visible water droplets and ice crystals.
In the atmosphere, cloud droplets form in aerosols that act as condensation nuclei or condensation nuclei. The rate at which these droplets are created is determined by the number of condensation nuclei. The process in which water droplets from the gas phase form on condensation nuclei is called heterogeneous nucleation.
The formation of water droplets from the gas phase in a clean environment requiring supersaturation is called homogeneous nucleation. Homogeneous nucleation, that is, freezing of pure water, occurs only at temperatures below -40 degrees Celsius. However, in the presence of aerosols as condensation nuclei, freezing can occur at temperatures of only a few degrees below zero degrees Celsius.
Condensation nuclei are solid or liquid particles in the form of dust, smoke, sulfur dioxide, sea salt (NaCl), or other hygroscopic microscopic objects that are 0.001 to 10 microns in size.
4. Frost
If fog alone is rare, freezing dew events are even more rare, especially for those of us who live in an area with a tropical and temperate climate like Indonesia.
To those who have no idea at all, frost is a thin layer of ice clinging to a hard surface. If you have ever known a unique event about freezing plants in the Dieng plateau during the summer, that’s roughly what happened.
Like fog and dew, frost also appears from condensation. This process occurs because the dew point is lower than the freezing point. As a result, water vapor that normally forms frost freezes into very fine ice particles.
Conclusion
That’s all for a brief discussion of the phenomenon of condensation, the meaning of condensation. Not only the definition, but how the process is created, the forms of the results of the condensation process and the motives that trigger it, what are the classifications of condensation, to its effects.
Even though condensation can cause a problem, condensation is still a natural process carried out by nature and is purely created naturally and we can enjoy its beauty.
Thus a review of condensation. For Sinaumed’s who want to learn all about condensation, the water cycle and other natural sciences, you can visit sinaumedia.com to get related books.