liquid in gas solution

[smhjn17]

Iv seen somewhere "water vapor in air" as an example of a liquid dissolved in a gaseous solvent...isnt this wrong as vapor is gas?....so it should be gas in gas

[studiot]

There are two separate ideas here.

 

The terms water vapour and steam mean different things to different disciplines, physics, engineering, meteorology, geography/geology.

 

The physics version is probably the best to stick to since it is consistent with lots of other aspects of physical science such as "vapour pressure".

This asserts that the gaseous form of a pure substance is called a vapour.

 

So on this definition water vapour is the gaseous form of water and it is invisible.

 

Gasses do not form solutions.

Assuming they don't react chemically with each other, they coexist with each other in any space or volume offered to them.

Their pressures are additive.

 

So this sort of water vapour and air is a mixture of two gasses not a solution of one in the other.

 

This leaves the problem of the fact that water can form myriad tiny droplets dispersed through the air.

These droplets are visible and comprise water in the liquid state.

This is what clouds and fog is made of.

 

Again the technical term for this arrangement is not a solution, but a disperse system. It is sometimes called an aerosol.

The 'background' substance (air in this case) is called the disperse medium and the sunstance spread through it the disperse phase.

These phases and mediums can be in any state here is a table.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dispersion_(chemistry)

[smhjn17]

Hmmm right , as far as water vapor is concerned it is gaseous ..so basically mixture of gases....thnk u