How to Vaporize a Liquid

Vaporization turns liquids into gases.

Vaporization is the process of changing a liquid into a gas, such as changing water into steam. Each element has its own vaporization point, the temperature at which it will shift from liquid to gas in form. In the weather cycle, the evaporation of water causes the change of seasons, rain and snow. In everyday life, you vaporize water every time your boil a pot of water to make pasta or put on a kettle for tea. Even at room temperature, without the addition of any external heat, most liquids will start to vaporize in small quantities naturally.

Things You'll Need

• Liquid
• Cooking pot
• 1/4 gallon of water
• Gas burner
• Spoon
• Bucket
• Mirror
• Magnifying glass

Instructions

1. Fill up a cooking pot with 1/4 gallon of water or any other liquid such as milk, tea, soda or soup.

2. Turn on your gas stove and start heating up the pot. Heating 1/4 gallon of liquid may take up to 10 minutes. Little bubbles on the bottom of the cooking pot indicate that the liquid is on the verge of boiling.

3. Hold a lid just above the cooking pot. If vapor, or steam, appears on the surface of the lid, the liquid has started to vaporize. Allow the liquid to boil--when the pot is dry, all the liquid has been vaporized. Depending on the strength of the flame, it may take up to an hour to boil off all the liquid. Take note of how long this process takes.

4. Place a bucket with 1/4 gallon of water inside it in your yard in a sunny spot. In high summer heat, the sun's energy concentrates on the liquid's surface and slowly vaporizes the water. Using the sun's energy to vaporize liquids is more time-consuming than boiling them, although it is more energy efficient. Take note of how long it takes for the bucket to dry out and compare it to the time it took to vaporize all the water in Step 3.

5. Place a mirror above a bucket filled with water in your garden. Aim the mirror to reflect and concentrate a ray of the sun's energy on the surface of the liquid. The mirror concentrates the sun's energy, speeding up the vaporization process. Put a magnifying glass between the mirror and the liquid in the bucket to concentrate the energy even more intensely on the liquid's surface. Spanish engineers use this same technique to heat and vaporize liquid in power plants by concentrating the sun's energy onto solar-energy towers with the help of mirrors.

Tips & Warnings

• Do not place your hands between the water's surface, the magnifying glass and the mirror--the sun's energy may burn your skin.

• Monitor boiling pots carefully--do not leave them unattended or allow them to stay on the burner once dry.

• Take care with boiling liquids to avoid burns.

References

• Weather Questions: What Causes Evaporation?
• Chem 4 Kids: Evaporation of Liquids
• Solutions Site: Concentrating Solar Power Plant in Spain and Powerful Solar Power Plant in Portugal Combat Climate Change