I’m five, and I’d like a simple way of understanding water’s triple point.
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Water can exist in three forms, as a solid (ice), liquid (water) and a gas (steam). You probably see and drink liquid water every day. During the winter, depending where you live, you probably encounter solid water ice frequently as well. When you heat water up, like on a stove, you can see the mist from water gas, steam.
Water changes between these three forms depending on the temperature. Cold, it is ice. Medium, it is liquid, and hot, it is steam. Water also can change forms when pressure changes. If you take water up onto a high mountain where the pressure is low, it turns into steam at a lower temperature. If you were to go in a pressure chamber, it would change into steam at a higher temperature.
At some temperatures, water can exist in two forms at once. For instance, when it is freezing out, you can have both puddles of water and snow at the same time, without the puddles freezing or the snow melting. Similarly, when you boil water, the water doesn’t boil all at once, but it exists as steam and hot liquid water at the same time. You could consider these to be “double points” because water exists in two forms. There is also a set of “triple points” for water, where it can exist as a solid, liquid, and gas, all at the same time. This isn’t a condition that occurs naturally on Earth, because it requires very low pressure, closer to what you might find on Mars.
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