Interconversion of States of Matter

Another important physical property of matter is phase. The three most common phases of matter are solids, liquids, and gases. Water can exist in the solid, liquid, or gas phase.

Examples of phase changes include melting, freezing, condensation, evaporation, and sublimation. Melting occurs when a solid changes to a liquid. Freezing occurs when a liquid becomes a solid. Condensation involves a gas becoming a liquid. Evaporation involves a liquid becoming a gas and sublimation is the change of a solid directly to a gas. Phase changes require either the addition of heat energy (melting, evaporation, and sublimation) or subtraction of heat energy (condensation and freezing.)