Looking at Heating Curves

[Cory Poon 3G]

Why is it that when the materials are changing phases, the temperate stays flat?

[Mona Reddy Kurra 1J]

Hi! When a compound is undergoing a phase change, the heat that is being added is used to help break bonds that allow for the change in phase instead of simply changing the temperature. I hope that helps!

[Mrinalini Mishra 2L]

I really like Mona's explanation. That temperature needs to be consistently applied during a phase change to get the bonds of that substance to break.

[Tyler_Kim_2G]

I think a good example to illustrate the explanations above is the heating curve for melting ice. At the melting point, the temperature remains constant even though heat is being added. Here, the heat is being used to break bonds between the molecules within the solid. Once all these bonds are broken, the temperature increases again.

[Diya Kar]

By examining the heat curve, when a phase change occurs the heat being absorbed is going towards breaking the bonds holding together the molecule. However, when the specific heat function is utilized, that depicts the energy needed to achieve a change in temperature to the final temperature value.

[Nyah Zhang 1E]

When a compound goes through a phase change, the compound is either forming or breaking bonds. The temperature change is going toward this instead of raising the temperature of in a constant phase, so it will appear flat on a phase change diagram.