Answer to Question #73401 in General Chemistry for Bri

Question

Wet clothes hung outside in subfreezing weather will freeze. Eventually the clothes dry, even if the temperature remain below freezing.
A. What happens yo the ice in the clothes.
B. Is this a physical or chemical change?
C. His does this process relate to your observation of dry ice?

Answer 1

Answer
A. Ice transits directly from the solid state to the gas phase without passing through the liquid phase (water). This process is called sublimation.
B. It’s physical change because no chemical reaction happens. Water does not turn into anything else, but just changes its state.
C. Dry ice is solid CO2. It does not exist as liquid at atmospheric pressure at any temperature. That’s why at room temperature it always sublimes instead of melting.