The cloth becomes dry and the water evaporates due to light.. The light should have some formula that react with water to evaporate and produce some other byproduct elements too or if it is just a packet of energy, then the cloth should react to it too.
3
-
$\begingroup$ Water will dissolve into air or gas slowly over time. Warm water in general dissolves faster (and more). I believe the sunlight simply heats up the water. $\endgroup$– SteevenCommented Nov 10, 2017 at 14:14
-
1$\begingroup$ Why should there be "byproducts" of a reaction that turns liquid $\text{H}_2 \text{O}$ into gaseous $\text{H}_2 \text{O}$? $\endgroup$– ACuriousMind ♦Commented Nov 10, 2017 at 14:25
-
$\begingroup$ Take a towel from the closet and lay it out in the sun on a sunny day. It will warm up substantially. That's not a chemical reaction, but it is a response. (And evaporation of water is not a chemical reaction either). Cotton just doesn't happen to have a noticeable vapor pressure in the range 20-50 C, and if it did we wouldn't use it to make towels out of. $\endgroup$– The PhotonCommented Nov 10, 2017 at 17:07
Add a comment
|
2 Answers
$\begingroup$
$\endgroup$
1
Light reacts with the cloth more than the water. The cloth absorbs light. The energy of the light heats the cloth. The cloth heats the water. The water evaporates. Evaporation cools the water and cloth.
answered Nov 10, 2017 at 14:15
-
$\begingroup$ "reacts " is a very odd term here. Absorbs would be far more accurate. Nor does it matter which absorbs the light more: the cloth or the water. Both absorb light and convert it to heat. The water evaporates because of this heat but not the cloth, as it isn't made of a volatile material. $\endgroup$– GertCommented Nov 10, 2017 at 20:28
$\begingroup$
$\endgroup$
The cloth becomes dry and the water evaporates due to light..
is a misunderstanding of what happens. The main point is that water always evaporates if the air around is dry enough or if the cloth is located in a vacuum. See Wikipedia about Vapor pressure.
The light should have some formula that react with water to evaporate and produce some other byproduct elements too or if it is just a packet of energy, then the cloth should react to it too.
The light consists of photons which could be emitted and received by atoms and molecules. By emission the atom looses energy which is equivalent to lower temperature. By absorption the atom mostly gain energy and moves faster respectively the temperature of the medium increases. To talk about a reaction is occupied by chemistry, so better you talk about emission and absorption for individual atoms and molecules or you talk about energy transfer and temperature change in the macroscopic understanding.
answered Nov 12, 2017 at 11:30