What is steam?

In the school course of physics there is such a section,in which physical states of various substances are considered. And from the school we know three states of matter - liquid, solid and gaseous. Gaseous state of substances is called steam. But is it so? Let's try to find an answer to this question together.

So, what is steam? Steam is a gaseous state of matter. As a rule, the word steam is most often used in the context of water vapor, but this concept can be applied to other liquids. The process of separating vapor from a liquid substance is called vaporization, and the reverse process, during which the vapor turns into a liquid, is called condensation. Speaking of vaporization, we can distinguish two types of this process. The first kind is boiling. The second is evaporation. Boiling is the formation of steam under the influence of high temperature. Evaporation is a process that occurs at any temperature and only from the free surface of the liquid.

Now let's see what saturated steam is. There are two types of steam - saturated and unsaturated. Saturated steam is a vapor that is formed as a result of the boiling process and is in dynamic equilibrium with the liquid.

In its state, saturated steam can bedry and wet. Dry steam is steam that does not contain liquid droplets. Wet steam is steam, which in its composition has dry steam, as well as suspended droplets of liquid. The ratio of the mass of dry steam to the mass of wet steam is called the degree of humidity or the degree of dryness of the steam.

There is also a somewhat simplified understandingthe concept of saturated steam. So, saturated steam is a vapor that is in equilibrium with the liquid. And the volume of liquid does not increase because of the condensation of steam and does not decrease as a result of its evaporation. The saturated vapor model is a small amount of water in a sealed vessel.

Involuntarily the question arises as to what is differentsteam from the air? In terms of their chemical composition, air and steam have cardinal differences. This statement entails another question. What does steam consist of? The answer to this question is simple. Water vapor consists of particles of water. Air in its composition has many chemical elements, such as hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide. It should be noted. That the air contains water vapor in small amounts.

So, we figured out what isa pair of what it consists of and what is its main difference from air. It should also be remembered that water vapor is a powerful source of energy.