2023/09/12 by Marie Corpart, Frédéric Restagno, Corpart, Marie +3 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Experimental and Theoretical Physics Studies #FOS: Physical sciences #Physics Education (physics.ed-ph)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2309.06001
openalex publication_date 2023/09/12 · openalex created_date 2023/09/14 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Measuring the relative humidity of air is an important challenge for meteorological measurements, food conservation, building design, and evaporation control, among other applications. Relative humidity can be measured with a psychrometer, which is a hygrometer composed of two identical thermometers. The bulb of one thermometer is covered by a wick soaked with water so that evaporative cooling makes it indicate a lower temperature than the dry-bulb thermometer; it is possible to determine the relative humidity from the difference between these readings. We describe both a model and an experimental setup to illustrate the principle of a psychrometer for a pedagogical laboratory. The science of psychrometry could be more broadly taught at the undergraduate level to help introduce students to aspects of measurement techniques, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, and non-equilibrium thermodynamics.