What Is The Significance Of Latent And Sensible Heat In Our Daily Lives?

Heat is a form of energy that a substance either absorbs or releases into its surrounding atmosphere. Basically, this energy is of two types, viz., latent heat and sensible heat. The entire syllabus of the thermodynamic system revolves around the properties and nature of these two terms. 

 

Latent heat is something that deals with the phase change in the body. Whereas sensible heat is something that deals with the varying temperatures in the body. 

 

As these terms look, too, scientific in nature, why should we head our attention to these? Such thoughts are genuine as we are very busy with our lifestyles, so why should we take an interest in these terms. Well, these terms directly relate to changes to our surrounding environment, such as the water cycle of our ecosystem.

 

Latent Heat

 

Latent heat is defined as the energy absorbed or released by a substance during the phase change process. For a better understanding of this concept, we can relate to the example of water molecules. When water is boiled at 100 degrees celsius, it changes its phase from a liquid state to a gaseous state in the form of steam. During this phase transition, it absorbs energy from the surrounding environment. The important aspect of latent heat is its nature of keeping the temperature of the body constant during the phase change process.

 

Sensible Heat

 

Sensible heat is defined as the heat necessary to change the temperature of a substance by keeping the phase of the substance constant. We can observe the effect of sensible heat on our surroundings, such as when we heat an iron pan on a gas stove. During the heating process, only the temperature of the body changes, not the state or shape of the pan.

 

How Does Latent Heat Causes Thunderstorms?

 

The variation in latent heat plays a crucial role in the formation of thunderstorms. When the temperature of water molecules rises, it leads to the formation of clouds. After the formation of clouds, the air becomes saturated, and clouds release the latent heat into the atmosphere. The released energy then raises the temperature of the surrounding air, causing a disturbance in pressure distribution. 

 

The warm air surrounding the cloud droplet tends to rise and condense above the existing clouds. This increases cloud height, and due to the pressure and temperature variation, the outcomes come in the form of thunderstorms. 

 

Thunderstorms release an enormous amount of energy, which in turn charges the ions present in the atmosphere giving a lightning picture. The more the difference occurs in the surrounding environment, the more becomes the intensity of thunderstorms.

 

How Does The Concept Of Heat Affect The Rainfall?

 

In humid weather conditions, the variation in latent heat increases the chance of convective showers and thunderstorms. This is why southern regions regularly experience thunderstorms, and northern regions do not face any such threats.

 

When rain showers hit the ground, they instantly absorb the heat of the earth's surface and evaporate back into the atmosphere. This evaporation is the prime cause why we instantly start experiencing humidity in the atmosphere. The evaporated droplets, in addition to absorbing the latent heat of hot surface, absorb dust particles, which provide us soothing fragrance with starting showers.

 

In a similar way, evaporation of the sweat provides us cooling sensation on hot days. The effect of evaporation rises when winds carry away the moisture away from the skin area. However, an extreme hot environment may shut down the body functions, due to which our body will stop releasing sweat. Such situations are not good for our body, as these may lead us to face heat strokes, leading us to death.