Which of the following is the only possible situation for a substance?

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Question: Which of the following is the only possible situation for a substance?

Option a: During a phase change, the temperature can also change. This is incorrect because, during a phase change (like melting or boiling), the temperature remains constant as heat is used to alter the phase rather than raise temperature.

Option b: During a phase change, the temperature does not change. This is the key characteristic of a phase change in a pure substance: energy goes into breaking or forming intermolecular bonds rather than increasing kinetic energy, so temperature stays the same during the plateau.

Option c: During a temperature change, the substance changes from liquid to gas. This describes vaporization, which is indeed a temperature change process, but it is not the “only possible situation” for a substance—phase changes occur at specific temperatures, and not all temperature-change scenarios involve liquid-to-gas transitions; some involve solid-to-liquid or liquid-to-solid transitions depending on the substance and conditions.

Option d: During a temperature change, the substance changes from solid to liquid. This describes melting, which is a phase change accompanying a temperature increase; again, it is a temperature-change process that does involve a phase change, but it is not the universal or unique condition for all substances, since other phase-change scenarios also occur at particular temperatures (e.g., freezing or vaporization) and the question asks for the only possible situation for a substance, which emphasizes the constant-temperature plateau during phase change.

Summary: The statement that uniquely describes a characteristic of phase changes independent of which phase is changing is that the temperature remains constant during the phase change, making option b the correct choice in this context. The other options mix up phase-change behavior with general temperature-change behavior and are not universally true for all substances during phase transitions.

UCIC 202503 PHYS101 Quiz 6

Which of the following is the only possible situation for a substance?

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