Melting point facts for kids
The melting point of a substance is the temperature at which this substance goes from the solid state to the liquid one, at a normal pressure. For water, this is 0° Celsius (32 Fahrenheit, 273,15 Kelvin).
When looking at when a liquid substance becomes solid, most people call this the freezing point. For most substances, like water, this is the same as the melting point. There are substances, where this is not the case (they melt at one temperature, and freeze at another). Agar seems to melt at 85° Celsius, but freeze at between 35°C and 40°C. Physicists call this phenomenon hysteresis.
Adding certain substances or impurities will change the melting point of the resulting mixture: As an example, sugar or salt will lower the melting point, and alcohol will raise it.
Images for kids
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Ice cubes put in water will start to melt when they reach their melting point of 0 °C
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Melting points (in blue) and boiling points (in pink) of the first eight carboxylic acids (°C)
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Kofler bench with samples for calibration
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Like many high symmetry compounds, tetrakis(trimethylsilyl)silane has a very high melting point (m.p.) of 319-321 °C. It tends to sublime, so the m.p. determination requires that the sample be sealed in a tube.
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See also
In Spanish: Punto de fusión para niños
