Yeah but how does water KNOW when to boil and when to freeze?

Answer 1

This is the type of question I ask my spouse and he sighs and shakes his head and tells me to go away.

Answer 2

Water KNOWS when to boil because it gets so excited that its molecules need more room to move around. Think of a class of excited 5 year olds or England cricket support es celebrating an Ashes win - it HAS happened, really. Think of a fire being lit by friction - the faster you rub the more agitated the molecules become. Eventually the attraction between the molecules becomes so strained that the molecules can't "hold hands" any more, so the fly off. (Like an elastic band snaps at a certain strain.)
When things get colder the molecules' attraction pulls them together. Think of things that shrink when they get colder. Ever had a medical on a cold day? Yes, that's right,..the skin on your fingers shrinks...
Eventually the molecules are packed so tightly that you could walk across the England supporters' heads. That's SO cool.
They'll stay like that till they play, let's say Ireland - yes there is such an animal - and they get all excited again, forget all about Australia and the nasty dreams and get back to normal.
Each type of substance can only take so much before it responds to the surrounding conditions, because of the make up of their atoms or molecules. Girls go to the toilets in pairs, boys..
well yes I suppose urinals don't encourage community gatherings...watch how everybody finds the optimum distance between respective "pay points", boys go alone.

Answer 3

It is not a matter of knowledge, it is about the physical characteristics of water. Water freezes at a temperature of 0 degrees Fahrenheit and boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit or 100 degrees Celsius. Those temperatures are approximate because their value will vary according to some factors like atmospheric pressure . Water can convert into a gas at prevailing temperatures, this is evaporation. The freezing point of water may be lowered by the solutes it contains by what is called osmotic effect also by the absence of the formation of crystals or by high viscosity caused by too many solutes.

Answer 4

Boiling has to do with the state of matter relating to the solid, liquid, gas, and plasma.

You can think of state of matter directly related to how excited the electrons are in a molecule. For example if the mocule's electron is fairly still then molecules align up in a crystal and form a solid. If the electron is vibrating and it fails to align up then it's in a liquid state, if the electrons are excited and vibrate so fast that it repels other molecules then it's in a gas form. If you take the gas form and heat it up such that the electrons are flying out of the molecule then you have plama.

Now boiling is what happens to liquid when it tries to be in a gaseous. Boiling is directly related to the air pressure.

There are other molecule in nature that does not boil but goes from solid to gas directly, like dry ice.

Now if we didn't have any air pressure like vacumn room, then the water would simply boil to freeze. This is also called vacumn freeze.

Answer 5

Water doesn't know whether to freeze or to boil (or to remain liquid water).

In physics and chemistry, freezing is the process of cooling a liquid to the temperature (called freezing point) where it turns solid. Melting, the process of turning a solid to a liquid, is the opposite of freezing. For most substances, melting and freezing temperatures are equal. For example, the melting point and freezing point of the element mercury are the same. Rapid cooling by exposure to cryogenic temperatures can cause a substance to freeze below its melting point, a process known as flash freezing.

For some pure substances, such as pure water, the freezing temperature is lower than the melting temperature. The freezing point for water is only the same temperature as the melting point when nucleators are present to prevent supercooling. The melting point of water is 0°C (32°F, 273 K). In the absence of nucleators water will supercool to −42°C (−43.6°F, 231 K) before freezing. But in the presence of nucleating substances the freezing point of water is the same as the melting point. Nucleating agents, such as dust, are commonly present in the environment, which is why rain water and tap water will normally freeze at the melting point of water.

Answer 6

At a certain temperature (100C), the heat becomes too great for the polar forces holding the water together and they repell in all directions (gas). In freezing the molecules slow to a point where there is so little movement that the molecules interlock into a still, ridged structure.

Answer 7

Water doesn't know when to boil or freeze.
The degrees know!

Answer 8

It boils when it gets too hot and freezes when it gets too cold, dude!!

xxB

Answer 9

when it reaches 32 degrees f or below it freezes
when it reaches 212 degrees f it boils

Answer 10

its all about how the chemical bonds form and the speed of movement of the water molecules how much energy they have and how often they collide with either another molecule or container.