Student Research Reports

The research question, “How does air temperature affect relative humidity levels?”, is important because variations in relative humidity can influence human health, material longevity, and overall comfort. Relative humidity is a measure of the amount of moisture in the air relative to the air temperature. It was hypothesized that as air temperature increases, relative humidity would also increase, since warmer air promotes greater evaporation and higher absolute humidity. To test this hypothesis, temperature and relative humidity data provided by the Weather Mate app were analyzed and compared. The results showed that as air temperature increased, relative humidity decreased, and as air temperature decreased, relative humidity increased. Additionally, regions with higher average temperatures, such as Florida and California, exhibited lower relative humidity levels. These findings reject the original hypothesis. This outcome is consistent with atmospheric principles, as warmer air has a greater capacity to hold water vapor; therefore, even with increased absolute humidity, the relative humidity may decrease as temperature rises.