Question

Which would melt first, germanium with a melting point of 1210 k or gold with a melting point of 1064oc?

Answer 1

Germanium To determine which melts first, convert their melting temperatures so they're both expressed on same scale. It doesn't matter what scale you use, Kelvin, Celsius, of Fahrenheit. Just as long as it's the same scale for everything. Since we already have one substance expressed in Kelvin and since it's easy to convert from Celsius to Kelvin, I'll use Kelvin. So convert the melting point from Celsius to Kelvin for Gold by adding 273.15 1064 + 273.15 = 1337.15 K So Germanium melts at 1210K and Gold melts at 1337.15K. Germanium has the lower melting point, so it melts first.