What is most likely to occur if you continuously increase the temperature of a liquid at atmospheric pressure?

• A. The liquid will freeze and turn into a solid.
• B. The liquid will eventually reach its boiling point and begin to vaporize.
• C. The liquid will remain unchanged regardless of temperature.
• D. The liquid will decompose into its constituent elements.

Answer: (B)

Verified step by step guidance

1. Understand the relationship between temperature and the physical state of a substance. Increasing temperature generally adds energy to the molecules, increasing their motion.
2. Recall that at atmospheric pressure, a liquid has a specific boiling point, which is the temperature at which its vapor pressure equals the atmospheric pressure.
3. As temperature increases, the liquid's molecules gain enough energy to overcome intermolecular forces, leading to a phase change from liquid to gas (vaporization).
4. Freezing (liquid to solid) occurs when temperature decreases, so continuous heating will not cause freezing.
5. Decomposition into constituent elements requires chemical reactions and usually much higher temperatures or different conditions, so it is not the typical outcome of simply heating a liquid at atmospheric pressure.