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klimatos
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1. Let us postulate a warm, muggy, summer’s night on your front lawn. The air is gently settling onto the cooler grass, generating a sparkling coat of dew.
2. Conventional condensation theory tells us that as the liquid dew condenses out of the humid air, a quantity of latent heat is released to that surrounding air. This heat either warms that air or causes it to cool at a lesser rate[1].
3. Thermodynamics tells us that heat can only flow from a hotter substance to a cooler one. No other form of heat flow is possible[2].
4. Where, then, is that hotter substance that is warming the air? The overlying atmosphere is definitely cooler. We have postulated that the grass is cooler. The droplets of dew are most likely at the same temperature as the grass. In any case, if the dew droplets were warmer than the air, we would have net vaporization and not net condensation.
5. I repeat, where is the hotter substance that is warming the air?[1] R. R. Rogers, M. K. Yau; A Short Course in Cloud Physics; Third Edition; Elsevier, New York, 1989.
[2] Charles Kittel; Thermal Physics; John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1969.
2. Conventional condensation theory tells us that as the liquid dew condenses out of the humid air, a quantity of latent heat is released to that surrounding air. This heat either warms that air or causes it to cool at a lesser rate[1].
3. Thermodynamics tells us that heat can only flow from a hotter substance to a cooler one. No other form of heat flow is possible[2].
4. Where, then, is that hotter substance that is warming the air? The overlying atmosphere is definitely cooler. We have postulated that the grass is cooler. The droplets of dew are most likely at the same temperature as the grass. In any case, if the dew droplets were warmer than the air, we would have net vaporization and not net condensation.
5. I repeat, where is the hotter substance that is warming the air?[1] R. R. Rogers, M. K. Yau; A Short Course in Cloud Physics; Third Edition; Elsevier, New York, 1989.
[2] Charles Kittel; Thermal Physics; John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1969.
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