Question

A student is working with three sealed containers filled with water. The first container is filled with ice. The second is filled with liquid water, and the third is filled with water vapor. Each container has a plunger on top. What will happen to the volumes of each container when the student presses the plungers

Answer 1

Explanation:

The three containers each contains water in different states.

Solid state of matter is considered as not compressible because the molecules are already as closely packed as they can be.

The liquid sate of matter has a very minute to no compression ability at all as the molecules are relatively close to each other. Compression is difficult to achieve in the liquid state.

In the gaseous state of matter, the molecules have broken free of one another, and are fairly spaced one from another. This means that gases can be easily compressed.

Pressing down on the plunger, the container containing ice can't be compressed at all so it's volume stays the same.

For the container filled with water, only a minute compression can be achieved with great difficulty hence, the volume reduces by an insignificant amount.

For the container filled with vapour, compression can be easily achieved and the volume reduces significantly.