Final answer:
Water must be heated to its boiling point at a specific pressure to turn into gas. The process increases the entropy of the system due to the higher disorder of the gas phase and involves breaking hydrogen bonds between water molecules.
Step-by-step explanation:
To understand what must take place for water to boil, we must heat the water until its temperature reaches the boiling point. The boiling point is the temperature at which a liquid turns into a gas, which for water is typically 100°C (212°F) at 1.00 atm pressure. As the water is heated, the kinetic energy of the water molecules increases, resulting in faster movement and a rise in the temperature of the water. When the boiling point is reached, the energy is sufficient to break the hydrogen bonds holding water molecules together in the liquid phase. The molecules then transition into the gas phase, creating steam, and the entropy of the system increases due to the higher disorder associated with the gas phase. Small bubbles of air and water vapor form at the bottom of the container and expand as they rise, creating the boiling action we observe.
It is important to note that during the boiling process, as long as liquid water is present, adding heat continues to convert water to steam without raising the temperature above the boiling point. This phenomenon demonstrates the high heat of vaporization of water, where a significant amount of energy is used to change its state rather than raising its temperature further.