Re: How do solids melt?

Edward Green wrote:


Sam Wormley wrote:

How do solids melt? (Jun 30)
  http://physicsweb.org/article/news/9/6/20

   Physicists in the US have gained new insights into one most of the basic
   phenomena in physics -- the melting of a solid. Arjun Yodh and
   colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania and Swarthmore College have
   shown that melting begins at defects before spreading to the entire
   crystal (Sciencexpress 11123991). The work will help fill in the gaps in
   our knowledge of the melting process.



This would seem to fall under the category of "things which require
verification, but are hardly startling".  That the partially disordered
lattice near a defect should be a nucleation site for melting is hardly
startling.

Yes and no- this specific result is not that amazing, this is true. However, what is more important, IMO, is the ongoing development, by many investigators, of a physical system that is a high-fidelity model of atomic systems. This model system (hard sphere colloids) is more amenable to human-scale manipulation that actual atoms.


--
Andrew Resnick, Ph.D.
Department of Physiology and Biophysics
Case Western Reserve University
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: How do solids melt?
    ... >>> Physicists in the US have gained new insights into one most of the basic ... >>> our knowledge of the melting process. ... >> verification, but are hardly startling". ... of a physical system that is a high-fidelity model ...
    (sci.physics)
  • Re: How do solids melt?
    ... > How do solids melt? ... > Physicists in the US have gained new insights into one most of the basic ... > phenomena in physics -- the melting of a solid. ... verification, but are hardly startling". ...
    (sci.physics)
  • Re: How do solids melt?
    ... Physicists in the US have gained new insights into one most of the basic ... phenomena in physics -- the melting of a solid. ... temperature (thermal energy) has no role in the phase diagram- the phase ... of the spheres is controlled strictly by the packing fraction. ...
    (sci.physics)
  • How do solids melt?
    ... Physicists in the US have gained new insights into one most of the basic ... phenomena in physics -- the melting of a solid. ... colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania and Swarthmore College have ...
    (sci.physics)
Quantcast