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In our everyday life generally, matter exists in three forms, namely solids, liquids and gases. Here we will discuss the interchangeability factor for the states of matter. For this interchangeability occurrence, some conditions are required and knowing about how this process takes place. The changing of states of matter is used to occur through the changes of energy between different matters, usually thermal energy. When a solid substance goes through a physical phase transition process that results in the transformation of the solid substance to liquid is known as melting. In nature, we can find many examples of solid to liquid conversions. Further in this article, we will discuss this more.
General properties of solids
To understand the process behind melting, first we need to understand some of the general properties of solids. The solid can be differentiated into two groups.
Further, these two types of solids are classified into different types of solids. In between amorphous solids and crystalline solids, crystalline solids show variation in their atomic composition, bonding and structure. Based on the properties of solids, the differences between these two types of solids can be understood easily. Some of the properties of solids are discussed below:
Electrical and thermal conductivity is one of the major properties of a solid. Solids have high electrical and thermal conductivity, dependent on their valence electron atomic number. Not all solids have high electrical conductivity and based on their degrees of conductivity, they are again classified into three types: conductor, semiconductors and insulators.
Other properties of solid are malleability and ductility. Among the solids, metals are found to tend to be both malleable and ductile, mostly due to their non-directionality in metallic bonds. Also, this property makes the metals most useful.
The conversion of solids to liquid is known as melting and the temperature after which this process takes place is known as the melting point. This melting point can be determined based on the strength interacting between the components of the solid.
Dissolving any solid into some liquid, known as the solvent and the extent of how much the solid dissolves in that particular liquid is known as solubility. For this process, different types of bonds are required to break down for different types of solids, such as metal required to break their metallic bonds, whereas the network solid is required to break its covalent bonds.
The density of any substance can be defined as the mass of that particular substance in a certain volume. This is one of the important properties of a solid that depends on its structure and composition. Among the three states of matter, solid possesses high density.
Solids are found to have short intermolecular forces and distances. Thus the constituent particles of a solid tend to remain fixed at their positions and oscillate about their mean position only.
Solids have definite mass, particular volume and shape, making solids incompressible and rigid.
Melting
When a solid substance goes through a physical phase transition process that results in the transformation of the solid substance to liquid is known as melting. The temperature after which this process starts to take place is known as the melting point. Particularly melting point is found in pure crystalline solids. It has been observed that the amorphous solids like glass or pitch melt gradually with no sharp melting point, and thus smooth transition occurs. Generally, the liquid structure is found to be always less ordered or in a chaotic manner compared to that of crystalline solids. Hence liquids took much more volume than the crystalline solids.
This process of melting is also known as fusion, and the reverse process of this transition of a liquid to form a solid is known as freezing. The melting point is the only temperature that coexists freely in both solid and liquid states. The pressure greatly influences this temperature, and the greater amount of pressure acting on the body makes the melting point go lower. Equilibrium of the solid and liquid state is maintained by the rate of melting, which is again affected by the pressure acting on the body.
Examples of solid to liquid
The most common example of solid to liquid conversion is the process of conversion of ice to water. The melting point of ice and water is zero degrees celsius. The eyes absorb the latent heat energy from the surrounding atmosphere and transform themselves into the water after gaining the required amount of Latent heat. To melt 1 gram of ice at 0° C, approximately 334 joules of heat are required. It can be easily noticed that the temperature does not change before all the ice melts and is converted into water.
Other many examples would be found caused by natural phenomena involving the sun’s heat energy. If we keep chocolate or butter-like substances without refrigeration, they can melt after some time. Also, cooking involves many melting processes.
Conclusion
Generally, matter exists in three forms: solid, liquid and gases. The solids can be classified into two groups: solids and crystalline solids, and again the crystalline solids can be classified into four different types. The process of conversion of a solid substance to a liquid substance is known as melting. The temperature after which this process takes place is known as the melting point. For different solids, their melting points are also different. The crystalline solids have a short melting point, whereas the amorphous solids do not.
