Question

Explain in your own words the interplay of temperature (heat) and intermolecular forces and the effect of these two variables on any particular substance achieving the 3 common states of matter.

Answer 1

We know that intermolecular forces depend on the distance between the molecules of a matter. In gases the distance is large while in solids the distance is the smallest.

If we start from gaseous state and cool it down we will decrease the temperature of the substance and thus intermolecular forces will start to increase due to lesser distance between each molecule of gas and after sometime the gaseous molecules will change into liqiuid after reaching a point where intermolecular forces are large enough.

If we further cool the liquid and decrease the temperature the intermolecular forces will again increase due to lesser space between the molecules and a point willl be reached where the intermolecular forces are large enough to change the state of the matter from liquid to solid.