boiling point

the temperature at which a liquid boils at a given pressure, usually atmospheric pressure at sea level; the temperature at which the vapour pressure of a liquid equals the external pressure

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

boiling point

[′bȯil·iŋ ‚pȯint]

(physical chemistry)

Abbreviated bp.

The temperature at which the transition from the liquid to the gaseous phase occurs in a pure substance at fixed pressure.

bubble point

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Boiling Point

the temperature of the equilibrium transition of a liquid to vapor at constant external pressure. The abbreviations used for the term “boiling point” include bp and T_b.

Table 1. Boiling points of several substances
Substance	Bciling point (°C)
Hydrogen ...............	–252.87
Nitrogen ...............	–195.8
Argon ...............	–185.7
Oxygen ...............	–182.9
Acetone ...............	56.5
Methyl alcohol ...............	64.7
Ethyl alcohol ...............	78.4
Nitric acid ...............	83.3
Iodine ...............	183.0
Glycerol ...............	290.0
Sulfuric acid ...............	330.0
Aluminum ...............	2467
Copper ...............	2567
Iron ...............	2750
Osmium ...............	5027 ± 100
Tantalum ...............	5425 ± 100

At the boiling point, the saturated vapor pressure over the plane surface of the liquid becomes equal to the external pressure. As a result, bubbles of saturated vapor are formed throughout the volume of the liquid (see). The boiling point is a special case of a transition temperature for a first-order transition. Table 1 gives the boiling points of a number of substances at normal external pressure—that is, at a pressure of 760 mm Hg, or 101,325 newtons/m².

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

An attempt is made to answer the following two questions: (1) How much do the average boiling points from ASTM D86 distillation differ from those measured afterwards using the TGA method?

ASTM D86 DISTILLATION IN THE CONTEXT OF AVERAGE BOILING POINTS AS THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTY OF NARROW BOILING RANGE OIL FRACTIONS

Other parameters of the distillation test, such as the 90% distillate, residue and final boiling point, were not important to the segmentation of samples, as can be seen by the weight maps shown in Figure 7.

Application Self-organizing Map Type in a Study of the Profile of Gasoline C Commercialized in the Eastern and Northern Parana Regions

I took the freezing point of pure water as my reference point; I call my thermometer, the Centigrade thermometer because it is calibrated to show 100 degrees between the freezing and the boiling point."

A historical journey in science education through role playing

However, brake fluid absorbs water from the air and this lowers its boiling point. Water boils and becomes steam which, unlike fluid, is compressed under pressure.

Stopping the silent killer in its tracks

In Boiling Point, the former Boston Globe reporter predicts "disaster"--including mega-droughts, monsoons, refugees, a "Northern hemisphere deep freeze," malaria and dengue epidemics, "not even enough [water] to drink," and "far more allergies"--due to "escalating instability of the climate system."

Full of hot air: a climate alarmist takes on "criminals against humanity"

Heavy traffic, countless traffic lights and you can easily reach boiling point trying to find a parking space.

Cycle to a greener city

This is a method of achieving distillation at temperatures lower than the normal boiling point. It is used when the material to be distilled is immiscible and chemically nonreactive with water.

Methods of distillation explained in detail

An absolute "must-have" for all households with a teenager ready to get behind the wheel--and fact enthusiastically recommended even to veteran drivers, as a refresher course in how to avoid road dangers before a crisis hits its boiling point and stay cool even if the crisis erupts anyway.

Saving Our Teen Drivers

And when the club invited author Tracy Price-Thompson to discuss her debut novel, Black Coffee (Villard, 2002), the conversation reached a happy boiling point when members received magnets that bore the Sunday Brunch Book Club name and contained a special saying about coffee.

Sisterfriends who brunch: an annual birthday celebration over Sunday brunch becomes the catalyst for a D.C.-area book club

Water has a boiling point of 100[degrees]C (212[degrees]F), meaning it evaporates (turns from a liquid to a gas) at this temperature.

Sugar load: unwrap the secrets behind some of the world's wackiest candies

Boiling Point: How Politicians, Big Oil and Coal, Journalists, and Activists Have Fueled the Climate Crisis--and What We Can Do to Avert Disaster by Ross Gelbspan (New York: Basic Books, 2004), 254 pp., $22.00 cloth.

Boiling Point

With less borate required, pulping should proceed with less pronounced side effects, such as an increase in the boiling point and an increase in the viscosity of black liquor.

Some properties of kraft and kraft-borate pulps of different wood species