VARIATION OF DENSITY OF HUMID AIR WITH TEMPERATURE, RELATIVE HUMIDITY AND ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE
Introduction:
Air density depends on several factors, the main ones are temperature, pressure and water content. This tool calculates air density considering that these three parameters and at the same time
shows a graph of density as a function of temperature. If we keep pressure constant, the higher the temperature, the lower the density. On the other hand, when pressure is increased the density is also higher, so
at high altitudes density decreases.
Our intuition could say that when we increase the air water content its density also increases. However, what really happens is the opposite. The reason is that water molecule is lighter that the main components of air,
oxygen and nitrogen molecules (not atoms). The mistake is because we may think of water as a liquid, that has a very high density in comparison with aire, however water in gas phase has lower density than air.