Question

Since the energy was not raising the temperature of the water during these segments, what was the energy used to do instead? Your answer must include an explanation of what is happening to the molecules.

Answer 1

The answer is; this heat is referred to latent heat

This heat is used to change the phase of the water. During this phase change, the molecules acquire energy that enables them to overcome the intermoelcular forces in their structure and hence get further apart from each other (intermolecular spaces increase). The molecules also gain a higher kinetic energy.