What causes clouds to form? And in general, how does matter change from one state to another? As you may have guessed, changes in energy are involved. Changes of state are physical changes in matter. They are reversible changes that do not involve changes in matters chemical makeup or chemical properties. Common changes of state include melting, freezing, sublimation, deposition, condensation, and vaporization. These changes are shown in Figure 4.18. Each is described in detail below. Energy is always involved in changes of state. Matter either loses or absorbs energy when it changes from one state to another. For example, when matter changes from a liquid to a solid, it loses energy. The opposite happens when matter changes from a solid to a liquid. For a solid to change to a liquid, matter must absorb energy from its surroundings. The amount of energy in matter can be measured with a thermometer. Thats because a thermometer measures temperature, and temperature is the average kinetic energy of the particles of matter. You can learn more about energy, temperature, and changes of state at this URL: [Link] Think about how you would make ice cubes in a tray. First you would fill the tray with water from a tap. Then you would place the tray in the freezer compartment of a refrigerator. The freezer is very cold. What happens next? The warmer water in the tray loses heat to the colder air in the freezer. The water cools until its particles no longer have enough energy to slide past each other. Instead, they remain in fixed positions, locked in place by the forces of attraction between them. The liquid water has changed to solid ice. Another example of liquid water changing to solid ice is pictured in Figure 4.19. The process in which a liquid changes to a solid is called freezing. The temperature at which a liquid changes to a solid is its freezing point. The freezing point of water is 0C (32F). Other types of matter may have higher or lower freezing points. For example, the freezing point of iron is 1535C. The freezing point of oxygen is -219C. If you took ice cubes out of a freezer and left them in a warm room, the ice would absorb energy from the warmer air around it. The energy would allow the particles of frozen water to overcome some of the forces of attraction holding them together. They would be able to slip out of the fixed positions they held as ice. In this way, the solid ice would turn to liquid water. The process in which a solid changes to a liquid is called melting. The melting point is the temperature at which a solid changes to a liquid. For a given type of matter, the melting point is the same as the freezing point. What is the melting point of ice? What is the melting point of iron, pictured in Figure 4.20? If you fill a pot with cool tap water and place the pot on a hot stovetop, the water heats up. Heat energy travels from the stovetop to the pot, and the water absorbs the energy from the pot. What happens to the water next? If water gets hot enough, it starts to boil. Bubbles of water vapor form in boiling water. This happens as particles of liquid water gain enough energy to completely overcome the force of attraction between them and change to the gaseous state. The bubbles rise through the water and escape from the pot as steam. The process in which a liquid boils and changes to a gas is called vaporization. The temperature at which a liquid boils is its boiling point. The boiling point of water is 100C (212F). Other types of matter may have higher or lower boiling points. For example, the boiling point of table salt is 1413C. The boiling point of nitrogen is -196C. A liquid can also change to a gas without boiling. This process is called evaporation. It occurs when particles at the exposed surface of a liquid absorb just enough energy to pull away from the liquid and escape into the air. This happens faster at warmer temperatures. Look at the puddle in Figure 4.21.
Output: Snow sublimates to form