p. 23611. Phase transitions
- Roger BowleyRoger BowleyDepartment of Physics University of Nottingham
- , and Mariana Sánchez
Abstract
This chapter talks about the cooling of a system that results in the appearance of new states of matter, such as gas that forms a liquid or a liquid that can form a solid when it is cooled enough. It describes the transitions between gas, liquid, solid, and superfluid in different phases of the ecosystem. These are called phase transitions. It also explains that the term 'phase' is a state of matter that is uniform throughout in both chemical composition and in physical state. The chapter highlights the importance of uniformity as physical properties, such as density or conductivity, and chemical composition must be the same throughout the system. It clarifies that the notion of uniformity means that any representative sample of the solid of macroscopic size appears to be the same as any other representative sample.
