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What is Heat of Vaporization?
Why Does Water Have Such a High Heat of Vaporization?
Why Should I Care?
But that's not all water's high heat of vaporization does! A common phenomena associated with liquids evaporating is evaporative cooling- this is where the surface of a liquid cools down when part of it evaporates. This is mostly due to how evaporating parts of liquids absorb much of their total thermal energy to evaporate, leaving the rest of the liquid with a cooler temperature. Besides providing yet another way of way of cooling water bodies (as parts of bodies of water slowly evaporate, they cool the water they leave), evaporative cooling, combined with water's high heat of vaporization, provides a way to easily cool down to organisms. As humans, animals, or plants (through processes like transpiration) create sweat on their bodies, it eventually evaporates. Due to water's high heat of vaporization, it takes a large amount of heat from the rest of the body as it evaporates, leading to large cooling of organisms when they sweat.
In short, without water's high heat of vaporization, organisms wouldn't be able to cool down properly, and world climate wouldn't be anywhere near as hospitable- extreme weather and temperatures would be commonplace, leading to several organisms being unable to survive in new, harsh conditions.
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http://www.clearbiology.com/biochemistry-review-activity/
AP Edition, Campbell Biology in Focus