if you put a damp paper towel on the end of a thermometer...?

Question

if you put a damp paper towel on the end of a thermometer and fan it, and take a thermometer without anything and fan that too, which would be colder, the thermometer with or with out the damp paper towel? please, answer if you only know what your talking about. please don't guess.

Answer 1

Latent heat of evaporation is at work here.
As the water evaporates it absorbs energy away from thermometer housing and fluid in the thermometry. Similarly when ice melts absorbs energy and when water turns to ice it will give of heat called latent heat of fission.

In general latent heat is the energy require to undergo change of state.

Latent heat can be expressed as
Lh=Q/m
Q- heat
m - mass