Re: [NTLK] OT humidity

From: Eric L. Strobel (fyzycyst_at_comcast.net)
Date: Tue Jul 02 2002 - 10:37:58 EDT


on 7/2/02 12:00 AM, Woo Lee at vitcitylb_at_earthlink.net wrote:

>
> When did the 'PT Crusier' get into this??? ;-) ...uh-oh another 'OT'.
>
> Just the 'fact' that water molecules ARE IN the air constitutes(pun) that =
> are air is 'solvent', water is 'solute'. Just like air in water is =
> solute...or
> But tell this to a geologist or biochemist and they'll either 'crumble' or =
> 'dissolve! :-o
> ------------------
>> The degree of interaction (thermodynamics) and the temperature
>> (kinetics) will determine what happens at a given P and T.
> ------------------
>
> !ooW %-)

Well, I think I see where the confusion came from... I *did* find one text
last night that stated air is a solution of gasses. But I found another
where the definition of a solvation required the solvent to exert some
attractive force upon the solute in order to dissolve it. [In other words,
if a mixture comes about by dissolving, then the substance that exerts the
force is the solvent and the substance acted upon is the solute.] This is
the definition that matches what I was taught in HS and college (although
the text I found this definition in was not one I ever used). Using that
definition, since water doesn't dissolve in air (i.e., air doesn't exert an
*attractive* force to rip water molecules out of their liquid state), air
cannot be a solvent and water is not a solute and therefore humid air is not
a solution.

So, it seems, there is a 'generic' usage of the term "solution" to mean any
situation where there is a homogeneous mixture of substances. But there is
also the rigorous definition that accounts for the physical process by which
the mixture came about.

Clear as mud, right? (Which, IIRC, is a suspension...)

- Eric.

-- 

Eric Strobel (fyzycyst_at_NOSPAM^mailaps.org)

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