this post was submitted on 14 Feb 2026
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Greentext

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This is a place to share greentexts and witness the confounding life of Anon. If you're new to the Greentext community, think of it as a sort of zoo with Anon as the main attraction.

Be warned:

If you find yourself getting angry (or god forbid, agreeing) with something Anon has said, you might be doing it wrong.

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[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 75 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (4 children)

Enter vapor pressure:

Basically water always evaporates if the air is completely dry, until the air contains a certain amount of water (measured in partial pressure, which is the part of the air pressure that is caused by water vapor). This partial pressure is temperature-dependent, so if you have 20°C (normal room temperature) you're gonna have 23 mbar of water vapor partial pressure in the air. Source

So water still evaporates at lower temperatures when the air is dry enough. It's just that at 100°C ("boiling point of water"), that partial pressure of water vapor in the air increases to 1013 mbar which is equal to the total pressure of the air; In other words, at that temperature in equilibrium, the air is totally made up of water vapor and nothing else. If you increase the temperature above that, the water vapor partial pressure tries to still increase, which makes the total pressure go above normal air pressure, which causes a pressure gradient and causes the air to move with mechanical force, which you can use to make turbines spin.

[–] Danitos@reddthat.com 28 points 4 days ago (2 children)

A more microoscopic explanation is due to Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution.

First, you need to underestand temperature. The difference between cold and hot water is the average speed at which particles move, with hotter water's particles moving faster.

But this is just the average speed, it turns out that particle's speed can be se en as a random variable, and they follow Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution:

Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution

So you have a small proportion of particles that move very fast, even in cold water. If some of those particles get (or collide with other particles near) to the "layer" of water that is on contact with the air, they will have enough energy to escape water's superficial tension, thus going into the air and out of the water body. The higher the average speed of the particles, the faster this process will go. Finally, the rate at which this process happens also depends on the energy required to be able to leave the water body, which depends on factors like air pressure.

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[–] mech@feddit.org 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

You're really good at explaining stuff.

[–] Nindelofocho@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Thank you ive always wondered about this but never wondered about it when I had the chance to look it up and now I know :)

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[–] Omgboom@lemmy.zip 3 points 3 days ago

Yeah sure, whatever, nerd.

[–] dandelion@lemmy.blahaj.zone 96 points 4 days ago (4 children)

this feels like a potentially sincere attempt to recruit people into an anti-science conspiracy movement - this doesn't really feel different than the kind of reasoning you see with moon landing denialists or flat earthers.

[–] Syndication@lemmy.today 113 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (3 children)

Eh I wouldn't take it too seriously, I'm pretty sure it's a play on the whole running joke of "saying something ridiculous, then end it with 'You guys don't seriously believe this right?!?'" type of thing. I've seen many of these greentexts that used that format recently.

It's kinda funny to me because it loosely reminds me of same logic as those old rage comic "troll physics" memes like these:

[–] toynbee@lemmy.world 16 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[–] Syndication@lemmy.today 9 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I just realized I called myself old too :(

2012 was only 7 years ago, right?

[–] toynbee@lemmy.world 10 points 4 days ago

2012 is at least 11 years in the future, I'm pretty sure.

[–] pticrix@lemmy.ca 5 points 4 days ago

It was seven years ago, seven years ago.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 4 days ago

And /r/the_donald was just a joke

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 48 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (3 children)

It's actually not a bad question, just one people don't really think about. Why does room temperature water ~~sublimate~~ evaporate?

It's because the temperature is an average, and some molecules at the surface have enough energy to break their polar bonds.

[–] wolfpack86@lemmy.world 27 points 4 days ago (4 children)

Water doesn't sublimate. Sublimation is solid to gaseous phase change.

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[–] naught@sh.itjust.works 25 points 4 days ago

Pretty sure Bill Nye taught me this. Substitute teachers aren't playing the good stuff anymore

[–] Hideakikarate@sh.itjust.works 22 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I wanna say Bill Nye had a little contraption that explained this phenomenon. A cup with a piston on one end that vibrated. The top part of the cup had a ring in the center where little balls in the cup could fit. The piston represented the temperature (energy). Even at a lower temperature, some balls could randomly fly into the little hole and into the other partition. Turning the temperature up (increasing the speed and power of the piston) made more balls more frequently "evaporate." I wish I could find that demonstration again.

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[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 11 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Im a lifelong flat earth denier

[–] RisingSwell@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The oceans aren't carbonated therefore flat earth

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[–] Fleur_@aussie.zone 56 points 4 days ago (5 children)

Water operates on Celsius so it only needed to be 100 degrees retard

[–] Zozano@aussie.zone 36 points 4 days ago

Cmon bro, that word is not appropriate, you can say °C instead.

[–] mech@feddit.org 4 points 3 days ago

Go boil yourself

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[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

Water is air soluable.

It's just like how salt will disappear in water without needing to get hot enough to melt.

Though both of them still need the thermal energy to do the state change, but they just borrow it from their neighbours.

[–] Hupf@feddit.org 25 points 3 days ago

Anon still lives with his mom and she mopped up the spill.

[–] DeathsEmbrace@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Temperature is based on "average" kinetic energy so technically there are molecules with higher energy's that are higher than the transition state and that's why

[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 8 points 3 days ago

I always panic a little, envisioning the vast game of pinball we’re constantly wading through, and also not because the sphere atomic model is just shorthand

[–] J92@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago

"Water can only fly when its a gas!!!" Words from losers that have never looked at the sky.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago

You claim water boils at 212⁰

Yet this sponge soaks it right to at room temperature.

Curious.

[–] FiskFisk33@startrek.website 32 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

matter changes state based on temperature

This is a gross oversimplification and your experiment proves that :)

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 31 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Water doesn't need to boil to dry out.

Obviously it's just losing wetness over time.

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 12 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Many hikers pack dehydrated water on long camping trips. Just add water to rehydrate it and drink!

[–] mech@feddit.org 3 points 3 days ago

I just pack alcoholic drinks cause alcohol is lighter than water.

[–] xep@discuss.online 19 points 4 days ago (3 children)

It's interesting because very pure water without asperites can be heated above 100c at standard pressure at sea level without boiling. But once impurities are added to it it starts boiling vigorously!

[–] fibojoly@sh.itjust.works 11 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Sounds like the same thing that happens at 0°C with very pure water that stays liquid, but shake it and bam! It insta-freezes.

[–] Kellenved@sh.itjust.works 5 points 4 days ago

Sometime water bottles display this trait in temps just below freezing. Liquid water in the bottle but break the seal and pop! Frozen

[–] reptar@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago

Doesn't have to be pure for that! I've seen it happen with those cheap plastic sleeve popsicles. It's kind of fun flicking them and watching the ice radiate through.

[–] HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[–] xep@discuss.online 9 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Imperfections in the surface of the container the water is in. Sorry, I intended to write 'water in a container without asperites'!

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[–] WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 23 points 4 days ago (2 children)

The teacher was explaining about conducting and not conducting, and we had a battery with lamp thing to test on various objects. I of course had to test this on a pencil and discovered semi-conducting. That was a serious "not today" sigh from the teacher.

[–] ulterno@programming.dev 9 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

How did that work?
Doesn't pencil lead material just work as a resistor? It's mostly graphite and clay, and shouldn't have the required structure to work as a semi-conductor.

Ahh right. I had forgotten about how to term "semi-conducting" was used back in elementary, thanks to semiconductors and the lot.

[–] WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 6 points 4 days ago

In my case it gave off a few sparks at the contacts what really makes it interesting for young me.

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[–] Sivecano@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 3 days ago

Those are the little water goblins stealing your moisture while nobody's looking.

[–] Akasazh@lemmy.world 15 points 4 days ago

Anon didn't pay attention in physics class.

[–] olafurp@lemmy.world 13 points 4 days ago

For fun I'm going to explain why. So air can hold some amount of water in it at any temperature. Water energy in form of heat is not evenly distributed so some molecules move faster than others, at the surface some move fast enough to escape the water and into the air. That's called evaporation, boiling does however require 100°C.

This also explains why humid weather affects evaporation (lower capacity to hold water in air) and at high humidity there's an a similar chance of water being deposited to the body of water as water escaping which affects evaporation speed a lot.

Honestly, I really like this quality of water, it would be super annoying to deal with otherwise.

[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

If water turns into gas at 100 degrees, how come I can pour it into a mug?

[–] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 6 points 3 days ago

Usually, when pouring, it doesn't exceed 90 degrees.

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