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Why does air with higher amounts of water vapor have a lighter density?

User DefLog
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2 Answers

5 votes

Answer:

Water vapor is a relatively light gas when compared to diatomic Oxygen and diatomic Nitrogen. Thus, when water vapor increases, the amount of Oxygen and Nitrogen decrease per unit volume and thus density decreases because mass is decreasing.

User Mike Griffith
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1 vote

Answer:

moist air is less dense than dry air because water has a lower molecular weight than nitrogen and oxygen

User Vasim Hayat
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