How can heat melt solids without changing the temperature?

Question

I’m trying to understand heat of fusion and I just can’t find myself on understanding how something can melt without changing the temperature?

In: 3

Answer 1

There are interactions between molecules in both liquid and solid forms. The energy that would be increasing the temperature of the solid past the melting point instead goes into changing the bonds from “solid bonds” to “liquid bonds”. Likewise, when liquid is boiling, the “liquid bonds” are being broken, releasing the molecules as gas, instead of the liquid being heated past the boiling point.