Schooling the Irrepressible Doug Cotton
Quoting Doug Cotton:
Blimey ST! You know next to nothing about physics.
Water droplets only form when moist air has relative humidity 100% as it does at the dew point. If the water vapour content is such that the relative humidity is, say, only 50% this does not mean that it will start to rain if the temperature falls a bit, or that dew will form while the temperature is still above the dew point, as it always is if the relative humidity is less than 100%. I have told you before (and you can read in Wikipedia and elsewhere) that the term “steam” in physics is synonymous with water vapour. Steam is just the gaseous form of water, sometimes called water gas. In the lower troposphere the water vapour content varies between about 1% and 4% of the air.
Solving Tornadoes (Jim McGinn)
You are not following. Do you have direct and unambiguous evidence that the moisture in moist air (at ambient temperatures) is mono-molecular (Steam, gaseous H2O)? If so then present it. I’ve looked and I can’t find it. All I’ve been able to find are absurd arguments based on semantics and based on the simpleminded assumption that since steam is invisible and moist air is invisible that, therefore, moist air must contain steam, as you’ve demonstrated.
I have no doubt that you will not able to find it either. So, let me give you a second option:
Explain the physics underlying the popularistic belief that the boiling point of H2O can, magically, be turned off when H2O molecules encounter gaseous air molecules. IOW, enunciate the factors underlying how/why water’s high boiling point are, IYO, turned off (neutralized) when H2O molecules are released into the atmosphere? You will find yourself trying to imagine how N2 or O2 can, somehow, interrupt the effects of the high polarity of the H2O molecule. You will find you cannot do it without imagining into existence properties that have never been detected. Go ahead. Show us your scientific prowess. Stop whining and attempt a real explanation. Explain to us how it is that the high polarity of the H2O molecule is, magically, turned off by interaction with N2 and/or O2 molecules. The boiling point of water is high for a reason. And that reason does not just disappear when steam is released into the atmosphere. (For an explicit description of the physics and chemistry underlying why cold steam is physically impossible follow this link: wp.me/p4JijN-9l )
Moreover, evaporation DOES NOT produce cold steam. Evaporation involves cluster/droplets of H2O that are usually so small they are invisible. But it does not produce mono-molecular H2O. This is nothing but an urban legend.