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12.2: Investigation - Relative Humidity and Condensation

  • Page ID
    53330
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    Weather data.
    Chicago weather condition Data
    Temperature
    Relative Humidity
    Dew Point
    1. Record the current weather condition at Chicago in the table above.
    2. Based on the current temperature, determine the amount of water vapor needed to saturate Chicago’s current air.
    3. Based on current relative humidity, determine the water vapor content in Chicago’s current air.
      \[\text{relative humidity}=\frac{\text{amount of water vapor in current air}}{\text{maximum amount of water vapor air can hold at current temperature}}.\]
    4. Calculate the dew point. Is your calculated dew point in agreement with the weather report in the table?
    5. What is adiabatic cooling? Explain.
    6. What is the dry adiabatic cooling rate?
    7. Assuming Chicago’s air will rise, based on the current temperature, the dew point, and the adiabatic cooling rate, determine how high the Chicago air must rise before the water vapor in the air condenses into cloud.
      \[\text{height of condensation} = \text{adiabatic cooling rate}\times (\text{current temperature}-\text{dew point}).\]

    This page titled 12.2: Investigation - Relative Humidity and Condensation is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Likwan Cheng.

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