Evaporative Cooling

Definition

Evaporative cooling is a process where the surface of an object becomes cooler during evaporation. This happens because the molecules with the highest kinetic energy are most likely to evaporate, leaving behind molecules with lower average kinetic energy and thus reducing temperature.

Related terms

Heat of Vaporization: This is the amount of heat needed to change one gram of a substance from liquid to gas without changing its temperature. It's like how much effort it takes for those high-energy kids to leave the bus.

Latent Heat: This is heat absorbed or released by a substance during a phase change that doesn't change its temperature. It's like if you turned up music in the bus but didn't see any increase in overall noise because some kids were getting off at that moment.

Conduction: This is direct transfer of heat between substances that are in contact with each other. Like when two people sit next to each other on a cold day - they share their body warmth.