Question

Heat is applied to an ice cube in a closed container until only steam is present. draw a representation of this process, assuming you can see it at an extremely high level of magnification. what happens to the size of the molecules? what happens to the total mass?

Answer 1

The solid, liquid and gas phases of water would have the same structure of the molecules since they are same substance. The only difference would be the distances of the molecules in the container. For a ice, the molecules are close to each other where the molecules vibrate only in place. For liquid, the molecules are freely moving and are at some distance with each other but not that far away with each other. Steam, on the other hand, would have molecules that are very far from each other and are freely moving in the whole container. As the container is heated, the size of the molecules would not change. It is only the volume that has changed. Also, the mass is the same since there is no outflow of the substances.