[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

"pure water evaporates from ice to gas so quickly that it skips the liquid phase."

Why do science popularizers insist on dumbing things down to the point of using the wrong terminology? If the water changes from the solid to the gaseous state, without becoming a liquid; it hasn't evaporated -- it has sublimated. Why not just say so, and avoid confusing people?

It's not like it's that hard to learn a new word, and "sublimation" is a useful concept to know about. It explains freezer-burn. It explains why most of the snow in the far north doesn't melt in the spring -- it just disappears through sublimation.

[cynicom]

Sublimation can go either way, evaporation does not.