SCIENCE 101 BACKGROUND BOOSTERS FOR ELEMENTARY TEACHERS

Q: What’s the difference between

evaporation and boiling?
By Matt Bobrowsky

A:
To complement last
month’s article about con-
densation, we will discuss
evaporation (the opposite of condensa-
tion) and the closely related phenom-
enon of boiling. Both evaporation and
boiling involve changing a liquid to a
gas, but there are a number of differ-
ences between them.

EVAPORATION AND

BOILING DIFFERENCES
Speed: Evaporation is a slower pro-
cess and boiling is faster. Try this: In
the weeks leading up to a lesson on the
water cycle (including evaporation and
condensation), set a tall glass of water
on a shelf, and have students measure
the height of the water every few days
and keep a table showing the chang-
ing level (Figure 1). If students don’t
already know what’s going to happen,
don’t tell them; let them discover it.
They can also graph the height of the
water over time. Then when you’re
ready to talk about evaporation, ask,
“What happened to the water that was
in the glass? Where did it go?” (This
investigation could also be done with
students reading the amount of water
remaining in a graduated cylinder,
but you might prefer to have students
practice making measurements with
the ruler.) In contrast, you can boil
water on a hot plate and watch the wa-
ter level lower in a matter of minutes,
rather than the days and weeks it takes
for water to evaporate.
Temperature required: A liquid will
evaporate at any temperature above
freezing. In the previous example,
the water was at room temperature,
and it slowly evaporated. If the water
was warmer, it would have evapo-
rated faster. In contrast, boiling oc-
curs only when the liquid reaches a
certain temperature, which we call
the boiling point. The boiling point
of water at sea level is 100°C (212°F).
Bubbles: Evaporation does not in-
volve the formation of bubbles. When
F I GU RE 1
Measure the change in the amount of water.
Measure the change in the
amount of water.
BRIAN DISKIN
A LT IT U DE S A ND
PRE SS U RE
Why did I say, “at sea level”?
Because at high altitudes,
the air pressure is lower. With
lower air pressure, there’s less
of a “lid” on the water, and it
can change to a gas at a lower
temperature. Any cooks out
there? I just picked up my old
copy of Joy of Cooking, in
which the authors include how
cooking instructions must be
modified at high altitudes. For
example, in the soup section,
they say, “Above 2,500 feet,
soups need longer cooking
periods than called for in the
regular recipes, as the liquids
boil at a lower temperature.”
There’s so much cool science
in cooking! Remind me to do
an article on that.

48 • • FEBRUARY 2020
 F I G URE 2
gas
liquid
Molecules of water moving
Molecules ofbetween the liquid
water moving and thethe
between gas.
liquid and
liquid evaporates, individual mol-
ecules leave the liquid and become
part of the air. In Figure 2, the dots
represent molecules. The ones that
leave the liquid and become part of
the gas (air) are evaporating. The ones
that go from gas to liquid are condens-
ing. When the water in your glass was
evaporating, molecules must have
been moving from the water to the air
more often than molecules were mov-
ing from the air to the water. So there
was a net transfer of water molecules
from the liquid in the glass to the air.
As you can see from Figure 2, this
process does not involve any bubbles.
In contrast, when you boil water, the
liquid is changing to a gas so rapidly
that bubbles of water vapor form.
Here’s a think-pair-share question for
students: When you boil water and
see bubbles, is there anything in the
bubbles? If so, what are the bubbles
made of? Some students might think
those are air bubbles. But now you un-
derstand that they’re not air bubbles;
they’re bubbles of water vapor—water
that has changed from a liquid to a gas.
Is there an easy way to demonstrate
that the bubbles contain water mol-
ecules? Yes! Bring a pot of water to a
rolling boil. Put a lid on it for about 20
seconds, and then remove the lid and
look at the inside of it. It’s covered with
drops of water from those bubbles that
condensed on the cooler lid (Figure 3).
Location of the change to a gas:
You’ve probably noticed that when
you heat water to bring it to boiling,
bubbles first form on the bottom of the
pot. (Students wearing safety goggles
can observe this close up.) That’s be-
cause, at first, the bottom of the pot is
the only place where it’s hot enough to
heat the water to the boiling point and
change it to a gas. But once you have a
rolling boil, the entire pot of water is
at the boiling point (100°C), and bub-
bles form throughout the bulk of the
theEvaporation,
water. gas. on the other hand,
occurs only at the surface of the water.
(Recall Figure 2, showing the evapo-
rating molecules leaving the surface of
the water.)
Source of energy: Boiling usually re-
quires an external source of energy,
such as the burner under the pot of
water in which you’re boiling your
eggs. Evaporation, however, uses the
energy already in the liquid. If you
have a puddle of water, it has some
heat energy, which usually just came
from the environment. The heat in
that water results in some molecules
moving fast enough to escape into the
air, that is, evaporate. No additional
F I GURE 3
Water
Water vaporvapor from
from the bubbles the bubbles
condenses on the cooler lid.
condenses on the cooler lid.
www.nsta.org/elementaryschool
source of energy is required for evapo-
ration, and the water does not need to
reach the boiling point to evaporate.
As we’ve seen, water will evaporate at
room temperature.
What you just read implies that
evaporation, but not boiling, is a natu-
ral process. Your puddle of water or
the water on your hair that you just
washed will evaporate without you
doing anything special. Just wait, and
it dries. But boiling does not usually
happen naturally. We have to deliber-
ately heat the liquid to get it to boil.
Temperature change of the liquid:
While water is boiling, its temperature
remains constant at 100°C. A roll-
ing boil doesn’t make the water any
hotter than a medium boil. Your eggs
will cook just as fast either way. On
the other hand, evaporation of water
will cool the water—and any surface
that the water is evaporating off of.
That’s why if you wait to dry off after
you step out of the shower, you feel
cold. The evaporating water molecules
carry away heat from your skin. This
is also why you perspire on a hot, sum-
mer day. The additional moisture on
your skin results in more evaporation,
which cools your skin. So don’t wipe
that sweat off your brow; let it evapo-
rate, and you’ll feel cooler!
FACTORS AFFECTING RATE
OF EVAPORATION
Ask students, “What can we do to
make water evaporate faster?” Here
are some things that affect how fast a
liquid will evaporate:
Heat. Clothes drying on a clothesline
will dry faster on a summer day than
in winter.
Wind. If you step out of an outdoor
swimming pool when the wind is blow-
ing, you feel colder because the wind
causes the water to evaporate faster
from your skin, carrying away heat
energy from your skin faster, leaving
• 49
 Science 101

F IG URE 4
Wind causes the water on your
Wind causes the water on your skin to evaporate
skin to evaporate faster, which
faster, which takes heat away from your skin faster, that much detail with your students,
makingtakes heat away from your skin
you colder.
faster, making you colder.
your skin colder (Figure 4). This effect
is also the cause of the “wind chill fac-
tor” that we hear about in weather re-
ports on cold, winter days. You weren’t
in a swimming pool, but your skin
always has some moisture on it. The
wind causes that moisture to evaporate
faster, carrying away more heat from
your skin. That’s why it’s important to
stay covered up on cold, windy days.
The tighter the lid, the less evapora-
tion. But why, exactly? Students might
suggest that, with the lid on a jar, the
water molecules have no place to go.
You can respond, “Yes, but can’t the
water molecules still go into the air
above the water in the jar?” They can,
but that will result in a lot more water
molecules in the air in the jar (higher
humidity) and a lot more water mol-
ecules returning to the liquid (as in
Figure 2). It quickly gets to the point
where the number of water molecules
returning to the liquid is equal to the
number leaving the liquid, so there’s
no net change in the amount of liquid
water (i.e., no evaporation). That’s a
much more sophisticated explanation
than the lid simply holding in the wa-
ter. You probably won’t need to go into
but you’ll have a lot more confidence
in your content knowledge if you un-
derstand the process in-depth.
Surface area. Increasing surface area
will provide more surface from which
water can evaporate. So a wet towel
will dry faster if it’s spread out rather
than left folded or bunched up.
F I GU RE 5
To summarize, evaporation is slow-
er, occurs only from the surface of the
liquid, does not produce bubbles, and
leads to cooling. Boiling is faster, can
occur throughout the liquid, produces
lots of bubbles, and does not result in
cooling.
Between last month’s article and
this one, you’re ready to discuss the
water cycle. In its simplest form, the
water cycle is how water changes from
being water vapor (a gas) to liquid wa-
ter (condensation) and then back to a
gas (evaporation). Holy cow, it just hit
me how many real-life applications
we found for this one simple topic.
There’s so much to discover in our
day-to-day activities. That’s why I al-
ways say, “Never stop learning!”
Matt Bobrowsky (DrMatt@
msb-science.com) is the lead author
of the NSTA Press book series,
Phenomenon-Based Learning: Using
Physical Science Gadgets & Gizmos.
You can let him know if there’s a sci-
ence concept that you would like to
hear more about.

Humidity. Water evaporates faster

when the air is dry. When the air is
dry, there are fewer water molecules in
the air returning to the liquid, so the
water evaporates faster. When the air
has many water molecules in it (i.e., it
is humid), like on a rainy day, evapo-
ration is slower because more water
molecules return to the liquid. Try this
investigation: Put an equal amount of
water in three identical jars. Leave one
uncovered, cover another one with alu-
minum foil, and cover the last jar with
a tightly fitting lid (Figure 5). Based on Water in three jars: no lid, foil lid, and tightly sealed lid.
Water in three jars wth no lid, foil lid and tightly
what we’ve learned, what would you
expect to see after a few days to a week?
sealed lid.

50 • • FEBRUARY 2020