What happens to the distance between the molecules of ice when it melts?

Point out that the water molecules in ice vibrate but don’t move past each other. As the ice melts, the orderly arrangement collapses and the water molecules move past each other and actually get closer together as liquid water.

What happens to the molecules of the ice at it turns to water?

As ice melts into water, kinetic energy is being added to the particles. This causes them to be ‘excited’ and they break the bonds that hold them together as a solid, resulting in a change of state: solid -> liquid.

What happens to the distance between water molecules in ice and liquid water?

Density of ice and water Water’s lower density in its solid form is due to the way hydrogen bonds are oriented as it freezes. Specifically, in ice, the water molecules are pushed farther apart than they are in liquid water. That means water expands when it freezes.

What happens to the temperature as ice changes to water and water changes to vapor?

No temperature change occurs from heat transfer if ice melts and becomes liquid water (i.e., during a phase change). Similarly, energy is needed to vaporize a liquid, because molecules in a liquid interact with each other via attractive forces. There is no temperature change until a phase change is complete.

What happens to water molecules when water changes states?

When water changes to a solid or a gas, we say it changes to a different state of matter. Even though the water’s physical form changes, its molecules stay the same. Water can change from a liquid to a solid or a gas and back to a liquid, but its molecular structure always stays the same.

What holds water molecules together in ice?

It turns out that the answer lies in the interaction between the bonds that hold the atoms in the water molecule together and the much weaker bonds, known as hydrogen bonds, that are the glue holding groups of water molecules together.

How does the average distance between air molecules compare to the average distance between water molecules?

The density of air at STP is about (1/1000) the density of water. How doe sthe average distance between air molecules compare to the average distance between water molecules? The distance between molecules in air is about 10 times the distance between molecules in water.