Question

A pan of butter was heated; as the block of butter melts, it was then brought to its boiling point. Which of the four basic principles of matter BEST explains what happened to the particles of the butter as it changed from solid to liquid? Discuss briefly

Answer 1

Answer:

1. Butter has 80 % of milk fat. The milk fat consists of triglycerides, diacylglycerol ,cholesterol, phospholipids and free fatty acids. All are in solid state of matter. Solid means all atoms are closely packed and very very very less distance between atoms.

2. Consider the Egg box. Put some eggs in egg box. Close it. The eggs will be in their fixed position. It will not move in the closed egg box. But, if we shake the box it will vibrate. We can know this by hearing the sound.

3. Like that, in solids all atoms are in their fixed lattice position but they are always in vibrating motions like egg. This is due to the room temperature which is enough to make the atoms to vibrate.

4. But atoms cannot move from their position. They can vibrate. That's all.

5. If we heat the butter, the temperature will increase. Finally all atoms in butter will jump faster and faster. Atlast, they will start to move. This is called melting.

So now solid changes to liquid.

6. The attraction between butter Molecules decreased because of heating. If we go on heating, the attraction will decrease further and butter will starts to boil. This is called evaporation.

7. Butter is an emulsion of fat in water - thus boliling starts at about 100 deg C. As it is not pure water, but solution of proteins, salts and hydrocarbons its boiling point will be higher (thus 110-120 looks more or less probable).