I want to make sure I understand the relationship between the enthalpy of fusion and the melting point of a substance. So far as I can tell the enthalpy of fusion is the amount of energy required to overcome the attractive forces in a substance. The melting point is the temperature at which extra energy can be added to break (or forge) these bonds. Other than that, is there no relationship between the enthalpy of fusion and the melting point? One cannot be used to predict the other, correct?

Question

I want to make sure I understand the relationship between the enthalpy of fusion and the melting point of a substance.  So far as I can tell the enthalpy of fusion is the amount of energy required to overcome the attractive forces in a substance.  The melting point is the temperature at which extra energy can be added to break (or forge) these bonds.  Other than that, is there no relationship between the enthalpy of fusion and the melting point?  One cannot be used to predict the other, correct?

anonymous · Answer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enthalpy_of_fusion i think theres a relationship

anonymous · Answer

I read the article before posting. If you look at the graph on the right of the Wikipedia article, "Enthalpy of Zinc (solid, liquid, gas)", the vertical lines represent the enthalpies of fusion and vaporization. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Heat_Content_of_Zn(c,l,g).PNG Because they are vertical, they occur at a single temperature. The temperatures are the melting point and boiling point, respectively. There is an equation for predicting solubility that contains both terms. Can this formula be rearranged and used as a tool to find the enthalpy of fusion or the melting point given the other value?