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REPRINTS, COPIES
| Berry, R. Stephen. 1990August. When the melting and freezing ponts are not the same. Scientific American 263(2): 68--74. |
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Excerpt from "Almost every solid has a melting point, and almost every liquid has a freezing point. These two points are one and the same, just viewed from different perspectives; ice melts at zero degrees Celsius- the highest temperture at which it can be a stable solid- whereas water freezes at zero degrees C-the lowest temperture at which it can be a stable liquid. hardly anything could appear simpler. But appearances can be deceiving. Small clusters of atoms or molecules are offering new cluses about melting and freezing points - namely, that they are not so simple to pinpoint. These clusters- aggregates of atoms or molecules numbering from four or five to perhaps 100 or 200-can coexist as solids and liquids over a finite range of temperture and have distinctly different melting and freezing points.
Updated: Thursday, September 6, 2007. |
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