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When we continue to heat water at its boiling point it evaporates and some latent heat is stored in the steam formed, but when we heat ice at its melting point then why doesn't any latent heat get stored in the water?

Why does water have no latent heat like ice and steam?

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    $\begingroup$ Who said that there is no latent heat stored in water during melting? $\endgroup$ – DHMO Sep 3 '16 at 7:16
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    $\begingroup$ Water's latent heat of melting, in fact, is greater than those of most other compounds. $\endgroup$ – Ivan Neretin Sep 3 '16 at 8:10
  • $\begingroup$ Is it the latent heat present in water called "latent heat of fusion" or something else?what is it's value? $\endgroup$ – Navneet Kumar Sep 3 '16 at 16:28
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    $\begingroup$ @navneet the heat of fusion of water is about 80 cal/g. $\endgroup$ – Oscar Lanzi Sep 3 '16 at 23:17
  • $\begingroup$ @OscarLanzi Both "heat of fusion" and "latent heat of fusion" are correct. $\endgroup$ – DHMO Sep 4 '16 at 1:02
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Water does have a heat of fusion. It's less than the heat of vaporization, like most materials, because fusion is a much less radical rearrangement of the molecules than vaporization.

Even so, the heat of fusion of water (about 80 cal/g) is actually quite large compared with most other materials when they melt. See the comments.

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  • $\begingroup$ Both "heat of fusion" and "latent heat of fusion" are correct. $\endgroup$ – DHMO Sep 4 '16 at 1:02

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