Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Running on a dewy morning

This morning, we ran on a soccer field at 6:00AM.  I noticed that the grass was wet, and realized that it was "morning dew".  I became aware that the dew formed on the grass was there because it must have condensed from the water vapor that the air contained. Dew will start forming at night, when the surface of the earth starts to cool down, after a long day of retaining heat.  As the ground cools, it also cools the air around it.  When the air becomes saturated, it cannot hold the vapor that it contains, so this vapor condenses. The point when the air cannot hold the vapor anymore is called its dew point. After it passes the  dew point, it is when we can observe the water, or dew, on top of leaves (or in this case, the grass of the soccer field).

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