Changing state

A substance must absorb heat energy so that it can melt or boil. The temperature of the substance does not change during melting, boiling or freezing, even though energy is still being transferred.

A heating curve is a graph showing the temperature of a substance plotted against the amount of energy it has absorbed. You may also see a cooling curve, which is obtained when a substance cools down and changes state.

A heating curve for ice

Notice that the temperature stays the same during a change of state, melting or…