If everything has a freezing point does everything have a boiling point too???

Question

Ive always been told that if something can go to one extreme it can go to the other....i just find it hard to know that you can boil everything....(ie you can freeze a piece of wood but can you bring a piece of wood to a boiling point?)

Answer 1

Simply put yes. The freezing point is the reverse of the melting and as the compound is further increased in temperature it will eventually get to a boiling point and some materials boiling points are so high that they are almost never spoken of as boiling. Steel is an example. It melts at around 2100 Fahrenheit and boils at around 6000 if memory serves correct. Some elements or compounds of elements have a simultaneous melting and boiling point and these are referred to as sublimating.


OK, CO2 does sublimate at normal atmospheric pressure fellas.

BUT it does exist in a liquid state under higher than atmospheric pressures. If you don't believe me, go find a coca cola CO2 cylinder (with enough CO2 in it) and shake it. You will feel the liquid sloshing around!

Answer 2

Everything has a boiling point. There are animals in the oceans that need volcanic heat and sulfur to live, and die in the atmosphere (due to lack of sulfur and relatively low temperature). There are viruses and bacteria that survive up to 600 degrees celsius by simply covering themselves with a shell. So high boiling points are certainly possible. The "boiling point" is the temperature that will convert a liquid into a gas, and all elements can exist in the gaseous form. Some boiling points are even lower than the freezing point of water. A complete Periodic Table of the Elements may contain boiling and melting points of each element. You can find one here: http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~lvw/physics/bigpertable.jpg

Answer 3

Yes, everything can be boiled or vaporized. In our everyday lives, there are three states of matter- solid, liquid, gaseous. If enough heat is provided, anything can become gaseous. IF you take a close look at many instances of wood on a camp fire, you will notice a slight gap between the flame and the piece of wood being burned. This is a region where the wood is breaking down and being gasified, then mixing with oxygen to allow combustion.

Answer 4

No, not everything has a boiling point.

Carbon Dioxide for example does not have a liquid state, it simply goes directly from a solid (dry ice) to a gas when it is heated. As it is never liquid, it cannot boil.

Freezing and boiling are not extremes. Freezing simply defines the temperature at which a substance becomes solid and boiling simply defines the temperature where a liquid becomes a gas.

Answer 5

Everything does have a boiling point even carbon dioxide which sublimates under normal atmospheric conditions.

It must be noted that although CO2 does not apparently have a liquid state, it can be made into a liquid under lab conditions of very low pressures and hence has a boiling point.

Another example of a substance which sublimates would be iodine.

Answer 6

yes, provided that the substance that reaches it's freezing point is a gas or a liquid to begin with.

So therefore freezing a piece of wood isn't the wood freezing... it's the water inside or on it that is freezing. You would need to liquify the wood somehow. (which is impossible)

Answer 7

No ,there are substances which do not have a liquid phase under atmospheric pressure. they transform from solids into gases directly. This phenomena is called sublimation. An example CO2 carbon dioxide

Answer 8

yes, everything also has a boiling point, or a melting point, are the two the same. If not, everything doesn't have a boiling point.

Answer 9

Yes, you can...with a match.