How come there is no transition state in between something like ice and water like how there is between stone and lava. Is there actually some sort of viscous, in-between, water/ice that I just don’t know about?
In: Chemistry
What you’re interested in is the glass transition temperature, or Tg. It’s modeled after (you guessed it) glass’s behavior. When polymeric materials heat up, their molecules are still tangled together even though they’re technically liquid. That makes it quite like spaghetti, all the individual molecules can twist and turn how they want, but the whole thing is just a rat’s nest. This behavior can be expanded to include most polymers (plastic) and some mixtures (like rock and magma)
Like another poster said, the components in magma all have different melting points, which contributes to its melt behavior too. At the temperature magma starts to flow, the entire thing won’t be fully melted. Like crystalized honey, it pours in globs and not as a smooth liquid…. because there’s chunks.
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