Question

Problem 22

Answer 1

Given information

We are given that:-

I can see my breath as a little white cloud in the winter.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1.

Cold air causes the warm moisture in our breath to condense into tiny droplets of water that appear like a small, misty cloud.

Many people think seeing your breath has everything to do with temperature, but the spectacle has just as much to do with the amount of moisture in the atmosphere.

Because our bodies contain nearly  water, the air in our lungs is almost completely saturated with water vapor (water in gas form) and is the same temperature as our bodies . Cold air cannot hold as much moisture as warm air.  So when one exhales a warm, saturated breath on a cold day the cold air rapidly lowers the temperature of our breath, whereupon the combination briefly reaches dew point. At dew point, air can no longer hold water vapor; when air is cooled beyond dew point water vapor turns to liquid form, the physical process known as condensation. It is this liquid form of your breath – minuscule droplets of water – that creates the fleeting, misty cloud we see when breathing in cold weather.