What is meant by the terms water vapor saturation and saturation vapor pressure? Why does the saturation vapor pressure increase with increasing air temperature?
What will be an ideal response?
ANSWER: Student answers need to state that water vapor saturation means that for every water molecule that evaporates, one must condense, and no net loss of liquid or vapor molecules results. Saturation vapor pressure describes how much water vapor is necessary to make the air saturated at any given temperature. Put another way, saturation vapor pressure is the pressure that the water vapor molecules would exert if the air were saturated with vapor at a given temperature. Saturation vapor pressure increases with temperature because the number of "fast-moving" molecules increases as the temperature increases and, due to the temperature increase, the number of water molecules escaping per second also increases. To maintain equilibrium, the situation causes an increase in the number of water vapor molecules in the air above the liquid. Consequently, at higher air temperatures, it takes more water vapor to saturate the air. And more vapor molecules exert a greater pressure. Hence, saturation vapor pressure depends primarily on the air temperature.
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