Question

What are latent heat and triple points? Explain.

Answer 1

Latent heat

1. Latent heat represents energy that is emitted or consumed by a body during a constant-temperature process (or phase change).
2. The effort required to overcome the attractive forces that hold molecules and atoms with each other in a material is referred to as latent heat.
3. The temperature of a substance remains constant during the phase change and hence, latent heat does not contribute to temperature change.

Triple point

1. A substance's triple point is the temperature and pressure at which its three states (gas, fluid, and solid) coexist throughout thermodynamic equilibrium.
2. It is the temperature and pressure at where the sublimation, combustion, as well as vaporization curves, intersect.