Summary:
- Water loss to the atmosphere is a significant problem in many parts of the world.
- When water supplies are low, anything that can be done to decrease water loss is important for farmers.
- An evaporation pan can be used to measure how fast water evaporates in a given location.
- Water has a high surface tension (attraction between molecules at the surface of a liquid) because of its hydrogen bonding.
- Liquids that cannot hydrogen bond do not exhibit nearly as much surface tension.
- Low vapor pressure is an important physical property of water since lakes, oceans, and other large bodies of water would all tend to evaporate much more quickly otherwise.