When a surface absorb water, where does it actually go?
In: Chemistry
It evaporates on hard surfaces. It is absorbed by fibers on other surfaces. Most of it turns into air very slowly.
Ever noticed that if you have a glass of water the liquid seems to rise slightly at the edges instead of forming a perfectly flat surface? That’s called capillary force. If you were to make the glass much narrower, it would rise more. When you have something like a towel, or kitchen paper, their fibrous structure forms a great number of these narrow interstices and water is basically pulled along them inside the structure. The water is very weakly bound to the structure, and in fact you can get it out by simply squeezing the towel. At some point, most of the internal volume is filled up and the towel doesn’t absorb any more water.
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