Final answer:
Adhesion is the process that prepares a surface to bind to another, involving adhesive forces crucial for applications such as coating and painting.
Step-by-step explanation:
The process of preparing a surface to bond chemically or physically to another surface is known as adhesion. This involves adhesive forces acting between different molecules, facilitating the binding of a substance to a surface with which it comes into contact. Adhesive forces are essential for phenomena like surface wetting and capillary action.
This should not be confused with cohesion, which describes the binding of like molecules, nor with dissolution which is the process of a solute becoming incorporated into a solvent to form a solution. Understanding adhesion is critical for a multitude of industries and applications, including painting, coating, and even the biological attachment of cells to surfaces.