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I have a filled, warm, and dry (on the outside) water bottle that I put in the freezer. The next day I come and take the water bottle out of the freezer and towel dry the ice gathered around the bottle to the point where it is fully dry again. Anyway, I come back 20+ minutes later and some of the ice in the bottle has melted, but there outside of my bottle is wet again...

Why is this?


side note

I used to think it was because some of the melted ice diffuses and finds its way out of the bottle, then quickly fuses again. But, now that I think about it, I do not think the part about it quickly fusing again make sense.

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The cold water inside makes the bottle itself cold. The bottle cools the air outside.

Air generally has water vapor in it. Cool air can't carry as much as warm air. So some of the water vapor condenses on the side of the water bottle.

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    $\begingroup$ "Cool air can't carry as much as warm air." could be changed to "However, there's a saturation limit that decreases with decreasing temperature." to avoid misconceptions. The condensation occurs with or without the presence of air. $\endgroup$
    – Chemomechanics
    Oct 6, 2021 at 17:35
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As @mmesser314 said, the water comes from water vapor in the air. If you want to see this for yourself, try leaving your cold water bottle on a scale, and see how the scale reading changes as the outside of the bottle gets wet.

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