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Name: lester elementary school
Status: N/A
Age: N/A
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 1999 

Hello we are in lester elementary school. We have a question. If water gets radioactive when it is evaporated is its water vapor radioactive?

Water doesn't get radioactive when it is evaporated. Water in the liquid state absorbs enough energy to go into the vapor state. This is called the heat of vaporization. This process occurs when you boil water. Water also has a vapor pressure. This essentially relates how much water vapor is present above liquid water at a particular temperature. Radioactivity has to do with changing the nucleus of atoms (like adding or subtracting neutrons), not changing physical states of compounds (like going from liquid to gas). Hope that helps.

-Joe Schultz

It seems to me the question being asked here, with some puntcuations for clarity, is

If you have some water which has radioactivity associated with it, and you boil the water, will the resultant water vapor be radioactive?


I think Ric's right... and the answer is yes, if the water is radioactive then the vapor will be too.

prof topper

Let's be careful about the question. If the WATER is radioactive, the prof Topper is correct and the vapor will also be re radioactive. If something radioactive is dissolved in the water, then the vapor itself will NOT be radioactive - unless the radioactive substance is also evaporated.




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