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Old cars often have deteriorating interiors(not my Honda) and I got to thinking why. Obviously the sun is a big culprit, the sun will fade dashes, make leather crack, plastic bubble, etc.

Why does this happen? Because all the moisture has been evaporated off the surface, it has essentially been dehydrated.

So, how do we keep things hydrated? With hydration of course, which then begs the question, how much hydration? Too much and your glass gets foggy on the inside and you start getting nasty musky/moldy smells, too little and the interior starts to degrade.

I mean if you put a small dixie cup in a car, and fill it 1/4 way, and leave the car parked in the sun, some of that water will evaporate to steam increasing the humidity in the cabin. Now humidity in the air does have the benefit of limiting radiative heating from the sun, and it also has the benefit of saturating interior parts limiting sun based dehydration. But there's the problem of smell and mustiness that comes from swamp weather.

Old cars often have deteriorating interiors(not my Honda) and I got to thinking why. Obviously the sun is a big culprit, the sun will fade dashes, make leather crack, plastic bubble, etc. Why does this happen? Because all the moisture has been evaporated off the surface, it has essentially been dehydrated. So, how do we keep things hydrated? With hydration of course, which then begs the question, how much hydration? Too much and your glass gets foggy on the inside and you start getting nasty musky/moldy smells, too little and the interior starts to degrade. I mean if you put a small dixie cup in a car, and fill it 1/4 way, and leave the car parked in the sun, some of that water will evaporate to steam increasing the humidity in the cabin. Now humidity in the air does have the benefit of limiting radiative heating from the sun, and it also has the benefit of saturating interior parts limiting sun based dehydration. But there's the problem of smell and mustiness that comes from swamp weather.

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[–] • 1 pt

Steam is water raised to the critical temperature for a given pressure, and is a gas. At atmospheric pressure of 29.97 inHg with an open container, it immediately will fall back below the critical temperature and return to hot water vapor, which is not a gas.

Evaporated water (water vapor) is water in the air represented by a value we call humidity, and is not a gas, but an actual water mass whose amount or capacity is allowed primarily by temperature of the air mass.

[–] • 0 pt

Vapor by definition is gas, therefore it is steam, the vapor phase of water.

[–] • 0 pt (edited )

No, vapor by definition is a substance suspended in the air, such as a liquid or solid. Water vapor is the "gaseous" form of water, but it's not steam. Steam has a very narrow definition. It's the vapor produced when water reaches the boiling point, but it is the gas phase of water.

While you are correct in stating that steam and water vapor are both vapor, you're not producing steam with a cup of water in your car. You're just evaporating it.

[–] • 0 pt

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