A student had 50.0 grams of frozen alcohol and placed it in a beaker on a hot plate. The
student noted that for the first two minutes, the temperature of the alcohol in the beaker did
not change. By the end of the two minutes most of the alcohol was in the liquid state. Explain
how this could happen using the concepts of temperature, kinetic energy, and potential
energy.
I can't draw it here but I'm sure there is a heating curve in your text that will show you that the temperature of a frozen material will rise to the melting point of the solid/liquid AND IT WILL STAY AT THAT POINT UNTIL ALL OF THE SOLID AS MELTED. After tjat the termperature of the liquid will start to rise. You can take this information and plug in PE, KE, and the other concepts.
@DrBob222 I have the exact same question but there is no graph. It’s just the question there is nothing to go off of other than what is stated in the question.
To understand how the frozen alcohol turned into liquid on the hot plate, we need to consider the concepts of temperature, kinetic energy, and potential energy.
Temperature is a measure of the average kinetic energy of the particles in a substance. Kinetic energy refers to the energy of motion possessed by the particles, while potential energy refers to the stored energy within a substance.
When the student placed the frozen alcohol on the hot plate, the heat from the hot plate started transferring to the alcohol. Heat is a form of energy that flows from a higher temperature object to a lower temperature object until they reach thermal equilibrium.
Initially, the frozen alcohol remained at a constant temperature during the first two minutes. This is because the heat being transferred to the alcohol was being used to increase the potential energy of the particles rather than their kinetic energy. As a result, the temperature did not change, and the alcohol remained in its solid state.
However, as the heat continued to transfer from the hot plate to the alcohol, the potential energy of the particles increased to a point where the forces holding the particles together weakened. Eventually, the particles had enough potential energy to overcome these forces, causing the alcohol to melt into a liquid state.
In the liquid state, the particles have higher kinetic energy compared to the solid state. This is because the particles are now free to move and vibrate more freely. As a result, the temperature of the alcohol begins to rise as the heat continues to be transferred, and the molecules gain even more kinetic energy.
In summary, the frozen alcohol turned into a liquid on the hot plate because the transferred heat increased the potential energy of the particles enough to break the forces holding them together in the solid state. Once the forces were overcome, the particles gained kinetic energy, leading to a rise in temperature and the transition from a solid to a liquid state.