2007-04-08 19:57:09 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Engineering
The clothes will dry when the ambient relative humidity is below 100%. Of course freezing slows it way down.
You guys are hitting all around it, but that is OK, you are in good company.
The humidity has nothing to do whatever with the air. It is solely based on the partial pressure of the water vapor that is present compared to the saturation pressure of water at that same temperature. Air does not really "hold" moisture. The (psychrometrics) relationship between air and water vapor is not a solution, but a mixture. The air is the much greater part of the mixture by weight and it does act as a transport mechanism to carry the moisture away. Air also provides most of the atmospheric pressure at which the air and water relationships occur. As moisture is added to air, the density of the mixture actually decreases.
Public school science texts and even college engineering texts and class lecturers commonly refer to air as "holding" moisture only because this is an easy and traditional although inaccurate way to describe what is really happening.
2007-04-08 22:55:01 · answer #1 · answered by Bomba 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Exchange of water molecules with the surrounding air.
If the clothes are outside, then the wind helps the water molecules to leave the clothes and get "wetten" the air.
It's the same principle as puddles drying through evaporation, even on a cold day. The air is less humid than the puddle (or clothes).
You will see that clothes take longer to dry in very humid climates, even though the air is warmer.
2007-04-09 03:07:44 · answer #2 · answered by Ali 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
40 C or 40 F, if you hang clothes out side as long as it is not freezing, the clothes will dry, the water will evaporate even at 40 F, or course at 40 C they will dry very fast.
2007-04-09 05:52:49 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
As long as the temperature is above freezing clothes will dry. It has more to do with what the humidity is than the temp.
2007-04-09 03:02:39 · answer #4 · answered by peace 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
good question....!
even if temperature is around 25c clothes get dried how????
bcoz the moving air molecules carries moisture along with them
as a result clothes get dried
2007-04-09 03:02:49 · answer #5 · answered by S.N.Rao 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Clothes dry by evaporating moisture.
Drying is faster with moving air than with temperature.
It there is a breeze, the clothes will dry.
2007-04-09 03:33:20 · answer #6 · answered by aussie1_1950 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The relative humidity was less than 100%. The air had capacity for moisture, and air exchange carried the moisture away.
2007-04-09 03:01:20 · answer #7 · answered by novangelis 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
What did you expect them to do? The water is either going to evaporate or freeze, and it's not cold enough to freeze, so it evaporated. There's nothing to keep it wet indefinitely.
2007-04-09 03:02:12 · answer #8 · answered by Strix 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋