Why does a bucket filled with sand and water evaporate faster than a bucket filled with purely water?
Because there's less water in the bucket that also has sand.
can i do an experiment using sponges to test this out?
No. Check it out with two identical buckets and sand and water.
thank you
You're welcome.
A bucket filled with sand and water will evaporate faster than a bucket filled with purely water due to a phenomenon known as surface area. When the sand is added to the water, it increases the total surface area of the liquid.
To understand why this happens, we need to consider that evaporation happens at the interface between a liquid and the surrounding air. The greater the surface area, the larger the area available for evaporation to occur.
In the case of a bucket filled with sand and water, the sand particles create additional contact points with the air, increasing the overall surface area. This increased surface area allows more water molecules to escape into the air as vapor, leading to faster evaporation compared to a bucket filled solely with water.
Additionally, the presence of sand also absorbs some of the water, creating empty spaces between the sand particles where air can flow more freely. This further enhances the evaporation process.
In summary, the sand in a bucket filled with sand and water increases the surface area of the liquid, providing more contact points for evaporation to take place and ultimately resulting in faster evaporation compared to a bucket filled with purely water.