Abstract
It is well known that water boils at 1 atm pressure at 100°C. Also the dew point of water vapor at 0.22 atm is 20°C; hence if water vapor at 0.22 atm is cooled to room temperature, condensation occurs. While both of these statements are well known, they are incorrect. If care is taken to use very clean water and avoid surfaces, liquid water can be superheated to 279.5°C before boiling occurs(1) and water vapor at 20°C can be supersaturated to 0.75 atm pressure before condensation occurs.(2)
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Burton, J.J. (1977). Nucleation Theory. In: Berne, B.J. (eds) Statistical Mechanics. Modern Theoretical Chemistry, vol 5. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-2553-6_6
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