Question -
Answer -
Collect melting points of solid water, ethyl alcohol, diethyl ether and methane from a data book. What can you say about the intermolecular forces between these molecules?
Answer
Higher the melting point, greater is theintermolecular force of attraction and greater is the stability. A substancewith higher melting point is more stable than a substance with lower meltingpoint.
The melting points of the given substances are:
Solid water → 273 K
Ethyl alcohol → 158.8 K
Diethyl ether → 156.85 K
Methane → 89.34 K
Now, on observing the values of the meltingpoints, it can be said that among the given substances, the intermolecularforce in solid water is the strongest and that in methane is the weakest.