Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hello!
I am working on a project containing evaporation, which I want to speed up to the fastest possible speed. I want to increase the surface area that will be hit by the sun, but I don't know what ratios to create my container that the water will be sitting in.
Say I have 1000L, what height to width ratio will create maximum efficiency? Is it as wide as possible or is there a point where it is most efficient and anything after that isn't as effective?
Also, what material will insure that heat will remain within my container? Would it be better to have a black metal container or a black plastic?

Thank you so much for your help!
Jasmine

Jaseverdeen,

Thank you for your question and welcome to the forum. That is an interesting project. Evaporation occurs at the surface exposed to the air, so increasing surface area and minimising depth of your container will increase evaporation. The fastest would be to pour the water on open level ground letting it spread out in a wide puddle only as deep as surface tension will allow. I don't think there's an optimal ratio, you just want to make the area exposed to the air in sunlight as large as possible.

The material shouldn't make that much difference, just ensure you use the same material if you have more than one container.