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Adhesion – the attraction of molecules or compounds for other molecules of a different kind; Specific heat capacity – the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of one gram of a substance by one degree Celsius; Heat of vaporization – the amount of energy needed to change one gram of a liquid substance to a gas at constant temperature
2 O; one molecule of water has two hydrogen atoms covalently bonded to a single oxygen atom. [26] Water is a tasteless, odorless liquid at ambient temperature and pressure. Liquid water has weak absorption bands at wavelengths of around 750 nm which cause it to appear to have a blue color. [4]
In physics, chemistry, and other related fields like biology, a phase transition (or phase change) is the physical process of transition between one state of a medium and another. Commonly the term is used to refer to changes among the basic states of matter: solid, liquid, and gas, and in rare cases, plasma.
A similar concept applies to liquid–gas phase changes. [7] Water is an exception which has a solid-liquid boundary with negative slope so that the melting point decreases with pressure. This occurs because ice (solid water) is less dense than liquid water, as shown by the fact that ice floats on water.
A typical phase diagram.The solid green line applies to most substances; the dashed green line gives the anomalous behavior of water. In thermodynamics, the triple point of a substance is the temperature and pressure at which the three phases (gas, liquid, and solid) of that substance coexist in thermodynamic equilibrium. [1]
Matter in the liquid state maintains a fixed volume (assuming no change in temperature or air pressure), but has a variable shape that adapts to fit its container. Its particles are still close together but move freely. Matter in the gaseous state has both variable volume and shape, adapting both to fit its container.
One example is the liquid–vapor critical point, the end point of the pressure–temperature curve that designates conditions under which a liquid and its vapor can coexist. At higher temperatures, the gas comes into a supercritical phase, and so cannot be liquefied by pressure alone.
Thus water behaves as though it is an ideal gas that is already under about 20,000 atmospheres (2 GPa) pressure, and explains why water is commonly assumed to be incompressible: when the external pressure changes from 1 atmosphere to 2 atmospheres (100 kPa to 200 kPa), the water behaves as an ideal gas would when changing from 20,001 to 20,002 ...