Then literally everything is wet, because the air contains water molecules! But we don’t say everything is wet, just like water molecules touching water molecules don’t make each other wet.
A water molecule (singular) can’t be in a liquid state. Water molecules (plural) can be in a liquid state. It’s important to be precise with our language here
A single water molecule cannot physically touch enough other water molecules for them to be considered liquid. It can touch water molecules which touch other water molecules, in aggregate making them a liquid, but that makes the water molecule itself part of the liquid, which means it cannot be wet.
So literally everything on the surface of the planet, in every building, in every room, is wet? That makes it a completely useless definition and is obviously not what anyone means when they’re talking about something being “wet”.
It’s not useless if you understand wet as a relative term. There can be a normal level of wetness where if it is exceeded we then call that thing wet, and if it’s under that threshold we call it dry relative to the norm.
If air with 0% humidity can be called dry, then air with humidity can be called wet.
Language isn’t perfect and it’s often contextual. If someone wants to describe a property of water based on a newer usage in physics, maybe choose a newer word.
Ahh okay, I think I get what you’re getting at. It’s like how if you dry off after a shower, your towel is damp and not wet because you’re just looking at saturation.
I’d be surprised if other languages call the air “wet” because that’s an English word. In Chinese, we’d call humidity 湿度 which means “degree of wet”.
Ahh okay, I think I get what you’re getting at. It’s like how if you dry off after a shower, your towel is damp and not wet because you’re just looking at saturation.
Yep, you put it better than I did! Even if the air is fully humid, you’re still not wet, as there won’t be liquid water on you. Once there’s enough to actually form liquid water, you’ll be wet.
I’d be surprised if other languages call the air “wet” because that’s an English word. In Chinese, we’d call humidity 湿度 which means “degree of wet”.
Fair point, I didn’t know about Chinese. I was talking about other languages I know, none of which refer to humidity as wetness (in the respective language obviously), they all use separate words.
Then literally everything is wet, because the air contains water molecules! But we don’t say everything is wet, just like water molecules touching water molecules don’t make each other wet.
The water in the air is not liquid water. Unless it’s raining, in which case it’s very much liquid water, and you’re very wet if you’re standing in it
Yes, the water in the air is not liquid water, just like individual water molecules are not liquid water. You got it!
An individual water molecule is not liquid, but if it’s touching other water molecules that are in a liquid state, then it is wet.
Water molecules can’t be in a liquid state, it’s only the aggregate that’s liquid. Therefore water molecules can’t be wet.
A water molecule (singular) can’t be in a liquid state. Water molecules (plural) can be in a liquid state. It’s important to be precise with our language here
A single water molecule cannot physically touch enough other water molecules for them to be considered liquid. It can touch water molecules which touch other water molecules, in aggregate making them a liquid, but that makes the water molecule itself part of the liquid, which means it cannot be wet.
How many molecules need to be touching to be considered an aggregate?
What is humidity other than the measurement of how saturated the air is with water vapor (or how wet the air is)
I mean I’d say that counts as wet.
So literally everything on the surface of the planet, in every building, in every room, is wet? That makes it a completely useless definition and is obviously not what anyone means when they’re talking about something being “wet”.
It’s not useless if you understand wet as a relative term. There can be a normal level of wetness where if it is exceeded we then call that thing wet, and if it’s under that threshold we call it dry relative to the norm.
If air with 0% humidity can be called dry, then air with humidity can be called wet.
Language isn’t perfect and it’s often contextual. If someone wants to describe a property of water based on a newer usage in physics, maybe choose a newer word.
Yet we don’t do this, we call it humid.
But then what is humidity if not a measurement of how wet the air is?
A measurement of humidity, as the name suggests.
Please just explain why we don’t call humid air “wet”. I’ve never heard anyone call it that in any language. How can this be?
Ahh okay, I think I get what you’re getting at. It’s like how if you dry off after a shower, your towel is damp and not wet because you’re just looking at saturation.
I’d be surprised if other languages call the air “wet” because that’s an English word. In Chinese, we’d call humidity 湿度 which means “degree of wet”.
Yep, you put it better than I did! Even if the air is fully humid, you’re still not wet, as there won’t be liquid water on you. Once there’s enough to actually form liquid water, you’ll be wet.
Fair point, I didn’t know about Chinese. I was talking about other languages I know, none of which refer to humidity as wetness (in the respective language obviously), they all use separate words.