I know I said in my letter to Discover that the primary cause of turbulence was electron orbital period difference between the two surface areas. But, there’s more to it than just that when it comes to bonds between molecules that allow for liquid (or solid for that matter) state. For any two given molecules to successfully bond into a liquid state, there must also be a geometric compatibility. If the molecules are shaped right (such as two water molecules), there is room for the molecules to “buddy up” to each other. Think of it like two humans on a couch, spooning. Even though in ice form the water molecules strive for an oreintation through the entire crystalline structure that achieves (as closely as possible) symmetry in the positioning of oxygen and hydrogen molecules, in liquid form that symmetry is violated for temporary positions between molecules that are, as the analogy goes, spooning. This position isn’t something that the entire substance can do at one time because it’s lack of symmetry would eventually cause molecules to be in an unsustainable position as you add more to the overall make up. However, short lived positioning of this sort would be expected as molecules are jostled around by intertia. This also explains why water is denser than ice. The number of molecules at any given point in time in this “spoon position” is going to be fairly constant as a percentage of the total molecules, and it is going to be capped to a maximum position by the need to keep an overly large group of “spooned” molecules from coming into contact with non-spooned molecules in an unfavorable way. This would also explain why water isn’t compressible.

The same can be said for more complex molecules such as octane. But, hydrocarbons, especially longer ones, don’t have a molecular shape conducive to forming a stable crystalline matrix, which is why as most hydrocarbons freeze you get wax instead of something ice like. Complex molecules, without a good geometric shape that can be positioned into a stable matrix, will always form poor solids like this. Amongst other things, an octane molecule might be able to buddy up along side another octane molecule fairly well, but the ends have a hydrogen in the way that keeps two ends from buddying up well. This, BTW, also explains why long chain hydrocarbons, especially ones where the ending hydrogen have been ripped off, can for much more solid forms instead of way, such as polypropylene or high density polyethylene, two of the most common and most durable and most chemically resistant plastics known to man.

For the case of most metals, the situation is actually easier. Since the metals aren’t molecules, but atoms, at the time of crystallization, they have a simple shape that’s easy to make geometrically symmetrical, a spere. Also, atoms of the same type will always have the same electron orbital periods, so that’s not an issue. The only thing that will keep a stable atom from forming a solid with atoms of the same type is interference from other atoms. For example, while iron doesn’t like to bond with many things, it *does* like to bond with oxygen. Once it does, it’s geometric shape is no longer well suited for making a solid crystalline structure. Hence why iron metal is strong, and rust is structurally weak. The concept of stainless steel can be explained in that the presence of other metals in the crystalline structure (aka, nickel) provide the surrounding iron molecules with what they need to resist the chemical “urge” to combine with oxygen (in other words, the nickel donates or borrows some electrons from the iron in order to stabalize the iron to the point that it is no longer interested in an ironoxygen bond, without looking at my period chart I think the nickel is borrowing from the iron since oxygen likes to borrow from other elements itself, and also if you expose stainless steel to hydrochloric acid, something that has the ability to provide spare electrons to the nickel instead of the nickel using up the iron’s electrons, then the steel will rust regardless of it being stainless steel).

Anyway, that’s all for this post, just a little refinement of the whole gas->liquid->solid state properties of atoms/molecules.