A young child decided that he wanted to prepare for a summer snowball fight to surprise his siblings. Over the course of the winter, he formed several snowballs and placed them in the freezer. Several months later when he went to retrieve them, he noticed that the snowballs had substantially shrunk in size. Which of the following best explains this?
A. The snowballs underwent sublimation, leading to a loss of mass.
B. The snowballs underwent deposition, leading to a loss of mass.
C. The snowballs underwent vaporization, and water likely dripped to lower shelves of the freezer.
D. The snowballs underwent gaseous melting.
Click for Explanation
While this question stem is quite long, it is really asking what process changes a solid into a gas. A state change from solid to gas is sublimation.
A. sublimation, correct.
B. deposition, incorrect, Deposition is gas to solid.
C. vaporization, incorrect, vaporization is liquid to gas.
D. gaseous melting, incorrect, there is no such thing as gaseous melting.
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