Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- the pressure exerted by the molecules of a vapor, especially that part of the total pressure exerted by vapor in a mixture of gases, as by water vapor in air.
- The pressure exerted by a vapor on the solid or liquid phase with which it is in equilibrium. At pressures lower than the vapor pressure, more atoms or molecules of the liquid or solid vaporize and escape from the surface of the liquid or solid than are absorbed from the vapor, resulting in evaporation. At the vapor pressure the exchange is equal and there is no net evaporation. Also called evaporation pressure
- The pressure exerted by water vapor in the atmosphere.
In physics and chemistry, the atmospheric pressure that would be exerted by any single component of a gas if that component were the only one present. For example, the vapor pressure of oxygen in the atmosphere of the Earth is the pressure that would exist if everything but oxygen were removed. The total atmospheric pressure is the sum of the vapor pressures of all the materials in the atmosphere.