Purpose: The purpose of this lab is to learn how to calculate the dewpoint temperature and relative humidity for a specific area and understand differences between absolute and relative humidity variables. This will increase your confidence with quantitative reasoning skills while putting them in the framework of humidity. This will lead to further understanding of concepts later in the semester as well as basic everyday weather.
Learning Objectives: The purpose of this lab is to learn how to calculate the dewpoint temperature and relative humidity for a specific area and understand the differences between absolute and relative humidity variables.
Absolute humidity is the actual amount of water vapor in the air.
Dew point temperature is the temperature the air would have to be cooled to be saturated.
Relative humidity is the amount of water vapor in the air to the amount that would be in the air if it were saturated.
Wet-bulb measures how much water you need to evaporate into the air to get saturation. It is measured by the wet-bulb thermometer in a sling psychrometer.
How to use a psychrometer chart, after knowing the dry bulb temperature and wet bulb depression, to calculate the relative humidity.