Relative humidity is the most common term used to describe the moisture content in the air. The key to understanding relative humidity is to understand that the term means 'actual humidity' relative to the maximum humidity at a given temperature. Lets expand this a little.
The capacity for air to hold water increases as the temperature increases and decreases as temperature decreases. If we think of air as being like a big sponge that soaks up a fixed volume of water it is easy to see a point at which the sponge can no longer soak up any more water. This is known as saturation point and is 100% relative humidity. Now if we double the size of the sponge but retain the same amount of water our relative humidity is now 50%. Temperature has the same effect on air. As air temperature increases relative humidity decreases. Relative humidity is therefore a measure of actual water content relative to the maximum water content of air at a given temperature.
The capacity for air to hold water increases as the temperature increases and decreases as temperature decreases. If we think of air as being like a big sponge that soaks up a fixed volume of water it is easy to see a point at which the sponge can no longer soak up any more water. This is known as saturation point and is 100% relative humidity. Now if we double the size of the sponge but retain the same amount of water our relative humidity is now 50%. Temperature has the same effect on air. As air temperature increases relative humidity decreases. Relative humidity is therefore a measure of actual water content relative to the maximum water content of air at a given temperature.
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