DAT Destroyer 2012: GC Question 113

[The Prologue]

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It says Potential energy will be greatest in the gas phase and least in the solid phase. I thought it was the other way around?

 

[EpicDentist]

Nope, you thought wrong lol. Potential energy is the energy you could 'harvest' by allowing matter to shift into a lower energy state, and a solid is at a lower energy state than a gas of the same substance therefore lower potential energy

 

[biomolecmed]

Yeah. Think about it this way. There is more potential for the molecules to move when they are in a gaseous state than when they are in the solid state. Simply because there is much more space between the molecules in a gaseous state than in the solid state.

 

[Troyvdg]

I'm with the OP. I just memorized it, but I still don't understand it.
I thought Kinetic and Potential energy were inversely related?
i.e. the higher the kinetic energy, the lower the potential energy.
Isn't that what they teach in physics?