Chemical Forums
Chemistry Forums for Students => High School Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: Shadow on February 26, 2013, 12:19:18 PM
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How is some phase transition defined as sublimation?
If something solid needs to become gaseous it needs to enter the state between those two, and that's liquid. I think that sublimation is a transition between solid and gas where the liquid is an intermediate that exist for a very short period. Is it true? If yes, how short the period is?
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How is some phase transition defined as sublimation?
If something solid needs to become gaseous it needs to enter the state between those two, and that's liquid. I think that sublimation is a transition between solid and gas where the liquid is an intermediate that exist for a very short period. Is it true? If yes, how short the period is?
No. Sorry to be so blunt, but that's not the case. When I was a kid, maybe I'd have figured something like you did. But that is not a grownup explanation for the states of matter. Look at this image I yanked from Wikipedia (also check the associated page, and others it links to:) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Phase-diag2.svg You can see, there are many states of matter, and they depend on temperature and pressure. Sure you could have some liquid around while a solid is subliming, that's doesn't change the the solid-gas transition.