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Tetens equation

The Tetens equation is an equation to calculate the saturation vapour pressure of water over liquid and ice.

Version
v1 · 2026-09-28 · History
Domain-specific #
12503
Domain group
Natural Sciences
Origin domain
Geology & Earth Sciences
Subdomains
Atmospheric Science, Meteorology → Geology & Earth Sciences

Core Idea

Tetens equation is treated here as the recurring natural science, engineering, and health identity summarized by this source-grounded definition: The Tetens equation is an equation to calculate the saturation vapour pressure of water over liquid and ice. The Tetens equation is an equation to calculate the saturation vapour pressure of water over liquid and ice. It is named after its creator, O. Tetens who was an early German meteorologist. He published his equation in 1930, and while the publication itself is rather obscure, the equation is widely known among meteorologists and climatologists because of its.

Scope of Application

  • Formula. Monteith and Unsworth (2008) provide Tetens' formula for temperatures above 0 °C.

  • Formula. P = 0.61078 \exp\left(\frac{17.27 T}{T + 237.3}\right).

  • Formula. where temperature is in degrees Celsius (°C) and saturation vapor pressure is in kilopascals (kPa).

  • Formula. According to Monteith and Unsworth, "Values of saturation vapour pressure from Tetens' formula are within 1 Pa of exact values up to 35 °C.".

  • Formula. P = 0.61078 \exp\left(\frac{21.875 T}{T + 265.5}\right).

Clarity

A clear use of Tetens equation names the carrier, the operative relation, and the conditions under which the source treats the identity as present. The minimal definition is The Tetens equation is an equation to calculate the saturation vapour pressure of water over liquid and ice.

Manages Complexity

Tetens equation compresses multiple natural science, engineering, and health details into a stable diagnostic relation. The source shows both the central mechanism—p = 0.61078 \exp\left(\frac{17.27 T}{T + 237.3}\right).—and the practical consequence—murray (1967) provides Tetens' equation for temperatures below 0 °C. This compression makes cases comparable while leaving parameters, conventions, exceptions, and evidential quality explicit.

Abstract Reasoning

  1. Type the carrier. Identify the natural science, engineering, and health entities to which the claim applies.
  2. State the relation. Use the source-grounded identity: The Tetens equation is an equation to calculate the saturation vapour pressure of water over liquid and ice.
  3. Check operation and conditions. where temperature is in degrees Celsius (°C) and saturation vapor pressure is in kilopascals (kPa).
  4. Demand recognition evidence.

Knowledge Transfer

Within the home domain. Knowledge about Tetens equation transfers literally when a new case preserves the same carrier type, relation, and recognition test. Monteith and Unsworth (2008) provide Tetens' formula for temperatures above 0 °C. P = 0.61078 \exp\left(\frac{17.27 T}{T + 237.3}\right). Beyond the home domain. No canonical parent is asserted for Tetens equation. An outside case receives the specialist name only when the same typed roles and rejection conditions can be filled literally; otherwise the comparison remains an analogy pending later graph densification.

Relationships to Other Abstractions

Local relationship map for Tetens equationParents appear above the current abstraction, mutual partners to the right, and children below. Node labels state whether each abstraction is prime or domain-specific; colors identify relation types.Tetens equationDOMAINDomain-specific abstraction: Mathematical Relation — is a kind ofMathematicalRelationDOMAIN

Current abstraction Tetens equation Domain-specific

Parents (1) — more general patterns this builds on

  • Tetens equation is a kind of Mathematical Relation Domain-specific

    Tetens equation satisfies the defining boundary of Mathematical Relation: A mathematical relation is a formally specified subset of a Cartesian product, predicate over typed objects, equivalence or order structure, or equation constraining quantities, with arity, domain, parameters, and satisfaction conditions declared.

Hierarchy path (1) — routes to 1 parentless root

Neighborhood in Abstraction Space

Tetens equation sits in a sparse region of the domain-specific corpus (84th percentile for distinctiveness): few abstractions share its structure, so a faithful description tends to retrieve it precisely.

Family — Condensed Matter & Physical Chemistry Models (26 abstractions)

Nearest neighbors

Computed from structural-signature embeddings · 2026-10-08