What happens to the thermal energy of a substance when it undergoes a phase change?
Practice Questions
1 question
Q1
What happens to the thermal energy of a substance when it undergoes a phase change?
It increases
It decreases
It remains constant
It becomes zero
During a phase change, the thermal energy remains constant as the energy is used to change the state rather than increase the temperature.
Questions & Step-by-step Solutions
1 item
Q
Q: What happens to the thermal energy of a substance when it undergoes a phase change?
Solution: During a phase change, the thermal energy remains constant as the energy is used to change the state rather than increase the temperature.
Steps: 5
Step 1: Understand what thermal energy is. It is the energy that comes from the temperature of a substance.
Step 2: Know what a phase change is. It is when a substance changes from one state to another, like from solid to liquid (melting) or from liquid to gas (evaporation).
Step 3: Realize that during a phase change, the temperature of the substance does not change.
Step 4: Understand that the thermal energy is used to break or form bonds between particles instead of increasing the temperature.
Step 5: Conclude that during a phase change, the thermal energy stays the same while the state of the substance changes.
