"Condensation?" - The football explanation
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"Condensation?" - The football explanation
If you imagine that a room is full up to the ceiling with footballs and the footballs represent air molecules. Because the footballs are round there are gaps between each one so if we now imagine these gaps are three quarters full of water this would be 75% relative humidity. Provided the footballs remain footballs this water remains suspended in the air.
However if the footballs come into contact with a cool surface the footballs will shrink down to say golf balls or perhaps marbles therefore the space between the air molecules is now much less than when they were football sized. So what happens to the previously suspended excess water?
At the surface where the cooling occurs, which may for example be a window, there is now insufficient room between the air molecules to suspend the water vapour and the excess is deposited as condensation causing the window to ‘steam up’. This same principle applies to any cool surface such as cold wall surfaces, the outside of a glass containing a cool drink etc.
Therefore to reduce the likelihood of condensation being a problem one should try to keep the 'footballs' football size by insulating cool surfaces and provision of constant dry heat. By doing this the footballs will just bounce off and will not contract sufficiently to deposit condensate. One should also try to reduce the amount of water suspended between the 'footballs' by powered extraction of water vapour at source and if necessary use of a dehumidifier.
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