Try it on paper first. A hint, the key idea and the worked solution are here when you need them.
Water at has a density of . Its vapour at and has a molar volume of . The molar mass of water is . Treat each molecule as sitting at the centre of its own cube. Find the edge of the cube in the liquid, the edge in the vapour, and how many times larger the edge is in the vapour.
Intermolecular forces are London dispersion forces (every molecule), dipole-dipole forces, hydrogen bonds (H on N, O or F) and ion-dipole forces. A substance is a gas when the thermal energy beats the attraction, and a liquid or solid when the attraction wins. The distance between neighbours is the cube root of the volume per molecule, .
Have you tried it?
Work it out on paper first. It is fine to get stuck or make a mistake: that is how we learn. When you are ready, go through the solution one step at a time, and check each step against your own.
Given. , , .
Step 1. The liquid. . The volume for one molecule is . The edge is the cube root: .
Step 2. The vapour. One molecule has . The edge is .
Step 3. The ratio. .
Check. A molecule of water is about wide. So the molecules of the liquid touch, and those of the vapour are about ten molecule-widths apart.
Answer: in the liquid, in the vapour, and the vapour spacing is times larger.
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