Water Can Boil and Freeze at the Same Time
A sealed laboratory flask showing water simultaneously bubbling, sitting as liquid, and forming ice crystals
At a specific pressure and temperature known as the triple point, water exists simultaneously as a solid, liquid, and gas. This occurs at 0.01 degrees Celsius and 611.73 pascals.
Why Itβs Interesting
The triple point of water is so precisely reproducible that it is used to define the kelvin, the base unit of temperature in the International System of Units. A quirk of physics became a foundation of measurement.
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