It turns out that in sultry weather condensation on the outside of a canned beverage doesn’t just make it slippery: those drops can provide more heat than the surrounding air, meaning your drink would warm more than twice as much in humid weather compared to in dry heat. In typical summer weather in New Orleans, heat released by condensation warms the drink by 6 degrees Fahrenheit in five minutes.

“Probably the most important thing a beer koozie does is not simply insulate the can, but keep condensation from forming on the outside of it,” said Dale Durran, a UW professor of atmospheric sciences.

He’s co-author of results published in the April issue of Physics Today that give the exact warming for a range of plausible summer temperatures and humidity levels. For example, on the hottest, most humid day in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, condensation alone would warm a can from near-freezing temperature to 48 degrees Fahrenheit in just five minutes.

A quick back-of-the-napkin calculation showed the heat released by water just four thousandths of an inch thick covering the can would heat its contents by 9 degrees Fahrenheit.

“I was surprised to think that such a tiny film of water could cause that much warming,” Durran said.

Though he’s normally more of a theoretician, Durran decided this result required experimental validation. He recruited co-author Dargan Frierson, a UW associate professor of atmospheric sciences, and they ran an initial test in Frierson’s little-used basement bathroom, using a space heater and hot shower to vary the temperature and humidity.

The findings corroborated the initial result, and they embarked on a larger-scale test.

“You can’t write an article for Physics Today where the data has come from a setup on the top of the toilet tank in one of the author’s bathrooms,” Durran said.

Univ. of Washington

A test subject being weighed to measure the amount of condensation. The cap prevents air from moving through the opening on top.

First they recruited colleagues in Frierson’s beachside hometown of Wilmington, North Carolina, to duplicate the experiment and compare results with those taken on a hot, dry Seattle day. But they decided they needed to test a wider range of conditions.

Finally, last summer undergraduates Stella Choi and Steven Brey joined the project to run a proper experiment in the UW Atmospheric Sciences building. They unearthed an experimental machine with styling that looks to be from the 1950s, last used decades ago to simulate cloud formation.

With funding for educational outreach from the National Science Foundation, the students first cooled a can in a bucket of ice water then dried it and placed it in the experimental chamber dialed up to the appropriate conditions. After five minutes they removed the can, weighed it to measure the amount of condensation, and recorded the final temperature of the water inside.

The phenomenon at work – latent heat of condensation – is central to Frierson’s research on water vapor, heat transfer and global climate change.

“We expect a much moister atmosphere with global warming because warmer air can hold a lot more water vapor,” Frierson said. Because heat is transferred when water evaporates or condenses, this change affects wind circulation, weather patterns and storm formation.

Durran’s research includes studies of thunderstorms, which are powered by heat released from condensation in rising moist air.

As for his demonstration of the heat released during this process, he and Frierson are now working with the National Center for Atmospheric Research to develop an educational tool that will let students around the world try the experiment and post their results online for comparison.

The example promises to become as classic as a cold drink on a hot summer day.

Can Condensation János Balázs via Flickr/cc licensed

Today in Very Important Science: beer koozies are even more crucial than you think. When you pull a beer out of the fridge, the condensation that builds up on the outside of the can releases heat, warming your drink twice as much in humid weather compared with dry weather, researchers found recently. Beer koozies, you see, are priceless protectors of the cold.

Researcher Dale Durran, of the University of Washington, arrived at this conclusion while trying to teach concepts like evaporative cooling and heat caused by condensation; he figured a cool drink on a sultry day served as a good example. He calculated how much warmth comes from water droplets on the outside of a can. Water just four-thousandths of an inch thick could warm the can’s contents quickly, he found. In New Orleans, for instance, a can on a summer day would warm up by 6 degrees in 5 minutes.

“Probably the most important thing a beer koozie does is not simply insulate the can, but keep condensation from forming on the outside of it,” he says.

Durran, a theorist, and atmospheric scientist Dargan Frierson double-checked the phenomenon on a toilet tank, using a space heater and the shower to generate bathroom humidity. Then they realized they needed a larger experiment. Here’s what they did:

Warm Beer Can Test:  University of Washington

The cap prevents air from moving through the opening in the can. The can was first cooled down in a bucket of ice water, then dried off to remove excess moisture. Then it was weighed. After five minutes, undergrads weighed the can to measure condensation.

This is all fun and games, but it actually has an important bearing on climate change research. Warm air can hold more moisture, which is why it gets so absurdly sticky in places like St. Louis and New Orleans during summer. So warmer atmospheres could hold more moisture, driving more powerful thunderstorms–they’re driven by heat released from condensation in warm summer air.

The experiment, and some background material explaining it, is published in this month’s issue of Physics Today.