Discuss the factors which affect evaporation

There are four factors which affect evaporation.

(a) Surface area. Evaporation is a surface phenomenon. Thus escaping of particles from liquid state to vapour state depends on surface area. Therefore, the rate of evaporation increases with surface area.

(b) Temperature of the system. With increase of surface temperature, the number of particles with larger kinetic energy increases and there is greater chance of escape of particles from liquid to vapour state. Therefore, rate of evaporation increases with temperature.

(c) Wind. More particles of liquid vapour would be carried away from the surface of the liquid with increasing speed of wind. Thus rate of evaporation increases with speed of wind.

(d) Humidity. Humidity is the amount of vapour present in the air. At a given temperature, air cannot hold more than a fixed amount of water vapour. Therefore, the rate of evaporation decreases with increase in the humidity of air.