How does evaporation produce cooling?

Question

How does evaporation produce cooling?

Answer 1

The key to this question, is understanding what liquids have molecules with a range of energies.  So if you have sweat on your skin, some of the water is really hot and some is really cold and most of it is in the middle near the average temperature.  The really hot molecules that are near the surface will become a gas and leave.  

So you have your hottest molecules leave, it's like having a class, and you take out all of the A students, what happens to the average grade in the class?  It goes down.  Likewise, you take the hottest molecules out of sweat, and the average temperature of the remaining sweat goes down.

Answer 2

When water evaporates, it has to acquire enough energy to enter the gas state.  When it flies off, it takes that energy with it.

Answer 3

It takes energy to transform water that's in liquid form into water vapor, a gas. As the water evaporates, it sucks up that energy from around itself producing the cooling effect.