What is the difference between vapor and gas

If you are really interested you should study thermodynamics. Improve this answer. Featured on Meta. Now live: A fully responsive profile. Related 2. Hot Network Questions. Physics Stack Exchange works best with JavaScript enabled. Vapor is the result of any process, either of boiling or evaporation through vaporization of any liquid, the transitional phase contains vapor.

Evaporation and boiling of any liquid occur when its boiling temperature at a given pressure. Gas is one of the three states of matter, it is made up of elemental molecules or compound molecules, like air, which contains several pure gases. Gases have low density, which means they have great space between molecules which have a lot of kinetic energy.

Natural gas is a gas which contains methane, a compound with one carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms, it contains vapor, non-hydrocarbon gases and some amount of natural gas liquids. Some of the elemental gases are; hydrogen, nitrogen, fluorine, helium, oxygen, argon, neon, etc. Gases are difficult to observe with naked but it can be felt like air is always present in the atmosphere vacuum is an exceptional case , oxygen and carbon dioxide are important gases in the human respiratory system but they cannot be seen easily.

Some gases have odor thus, they can be smelled easily. Gases are easy to compress due to low density, and they occupy larger space than any solid or liquid. Matter exists in three main states, solid, liquid and gas. Solids have a definite shape and volume example Ice. Liquids, like water, have a defined volume but can change their shape depending upon the container. The third state, the gaseous state has neither definite shape nor volume. An example of gas is oxygen, carbon dioxide and water vapour.

Change in Phases. By changing the temperature and pressure, matter can be changed from one form to another. Lowering temperature or increasing pressure moves the molecules of matter closer to each other, making them more compact.

The following phase changes can be done through this process:. Gases can be changed to liquids. Liquids can be changed to solids. Increasing the temperature and reducing the pressure makes the molecules to move further apart from each other and the following phase changes can be made through this process:.

Solids can be changed to liquids. Liquids can be changed to gases. Sometimes, a substance may skip a phase with a change in ordinary conditions. A solid can become a gas skipping the intermediate liquid state and this is called Sublimation. Examples of this are dry ice, ammonium chloride, camphor and iodine.

About Vapour. Boiling occurs below the surface of the liquid. Summary: 1. A gas has one defined state at room temperature whereas a vapour is a substance that is in gaseous and liquid equilibrium at room temperature, at a given pressure. A gas can also refer to a single element of matter with its own unique physical and chemical properties, for example oxygen, nitrogen and neon.

Because vapour is actually the gaseous state of an element, vapour particles will be of a single element and may have a definite shape whereas gas particles when observed under microscopic view do not have a definite shape and will be a collection of atoms, ions, electrons and molecules. However both gas and vapour particles are in a random motion, colliding with each other or the walls of the containing vessel when observed under a microscope. Cite APA 7 ,. Difference Between Vapor and Gas.

Difference Between Similar Terms and Objects. MLA 8 ,. When the surface molecules of liquid gain heat energy that suffices for its transition phase from liquid phase to vapou with in the surface top.