What happens to particles during condensation?

What happens to particles during condensation?

• A. They gain energy and speed up.
• B. They lose energy and slow down, turning from gas to liquid.
• C. They remain unchanged.
• D. They split into smaller particles.

Answer: (B)

During condensation, gas particles lose energy and slow down enough for intermolecular attractions to pull them together into a liquid. This energy loss allows the gas to change phase to a liquid, and the released energy often moves to the surroundings as latent heat. You can see this when water vapor in the air turns into liquid droplets on a cold surface. The other ideas don’t fit because gaining energy and speeding up would keep things as a gas, staying the same wouldn’t cause a phase change, and splitting into smaller particles isn’t a feature of condensation.

During condensation, gas particles lose energy and slow down enough for intermolecular attractions to pull them together into a liquid. This energy loss allows the gas to change phase to a liquid, and the released energy often moves to the surroundings as latent heat. You can see this when water vapor in the air turns into liquid droplets on a cold surface. The other ideas don’t fit because gaining energy and speeding up would keep things as a gas, staying the same wouldn’t cause a phase change, and splitting into smaller particles isn’t a feature of condensation.