Absolute Humidity
we always talk about RH.Lasabar:So do I take any solice in the "Relative Humidity"? or is that if it's 60Degrees or 80Degrees it should always be at 67%Rh???
"whats your RH?"
"i keep my humi at 65% RH"
Wikipedia states:
The relative humidity of an air-water mixture is defined as the ratio of the partial pressure of water vapor in the mixture to the saturated vapor pressure of water at a prescribed temperature.
uhh... what? Pressure? do i now need a barometer in my humidor?
no. no you dont. vapor pressure is basicly the the pressure that water feels to vaporise.
damn science getting in the way of a good time...instead of dealing with the vapor pressure and all that we can estimate RH if we know temp and the dew point temp. ...long story very short when the temp changes the dewpoint does as well. the lower the temp the lower the dew point the less water in the air. bla bla bla science bla bla bla...
when we say "RH" we actually mean "RH at 70* fahrenheit" since 70/70 is accepted for some reason in the cigar world we all say RH on the assumption that the humi is at 70*f.
the reality is we are all talking about "AH"
if im not mistaken our hygrometers are reading Abolute Humidity. thats easy to understand. Absolute humidity is the mass of water vapor per cubic meter of air.
so as long as you keep your humidor at bout 70*f you can speak in RH if not....
personally i plan in staying with RH. its what im used to.
one more fear. If you have your humidor at 70% AH and the temp sudenly drops outside your humidor to about 35* would that cause some of the water to condense on the inside walls of the humidor?
ok... i hope i didnt botch that up too bad. Im not a meterologest, im a cook.
...who smokes cigars.
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Comments
I have no idea whether our hygrometers are engineered to measure humidity or relative humidity. I have noticed, however, that the humidity reading in a sealed container will change based on the temperature of the container (i.e. moving from the hottest part of my house to the coldest part of my house). As a side note, things like the salt test create an environment of 75% relative humidity, so the temperature would be irrelevant. All this points to the hygrometers reading relative humidity.
I am not a scientist, but here is what I believe:
1. Our hygrometers measure relative humidity
2. Relative humidity will rise as temperature drops and/or pressure rises
3. The difference between relative and absolute humidity is largely irrelevant for our application
There is a term in the rock climbing world called "gumby" which refers to someone who speaks as if they are relaying fact when they are just making stuff up or taking their best guess. Gumbies are notoriously dangerous, because they are usually found "leading" groups of new climbers. One such gumby recently handed a panicked girl a knife so that she could cut her rope while she was dangling helpless 300+ feet above the ground at the Gunks in NY. Another gumby works at our local climbing gym, and was explaining why we measure the strength of our climbing gear in kilonewtons. He told the students in his class that "one kilonewton is a 100-lb person falling 10 feet". The ratio of incorrect statements to words in that sentence is mind-boggling.
The point I'm trying to make here is that we run the risk of muddling things up by talking well beyond our own areas of expertise.
On a related note, I have a couple tupperdors that I keep with very low-charge 65% beads. Here's something I've been unable to explain, and maybe we can all theorize as to why that is. When I have the tupperdors completely sealed, the rH rises to alarming levels. I've been keeping the lid on the container without pressing it closed, and the rH has stuck perfectly at 66% for the last six weeks. If I open the tupperdor to take some sticks out, the rH gets back up to a perfect 66% within 20 minutes and just stays there (as long as I don't seal the container).
Why does the humidity continue to rise with beads in a sealed tupperdor? WTF?
*lights cigar* Ahhh...*smiles*
What was I worried about again?
You sir, just replaced "Bill Nye" as my source of science!
(Disclaimer: I'm no expert on the terminology of "RH", etc. I know the basic physics of cool air holding less moisture than warm air, and I've read the definition of RH. If I'm misunderstanding the latter, I could be completely wrong about Lassy's experience.)