Final answer:
The statement that steam expands to about 1700 times its liquid form is true due to the heat absorption during phase change and resulting molecular separation. This expansion exemplifies how gases have much lower densities than liquids and solids, with particle distances about 10 times greater.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement that steam expands to about 1700 times its liquid form is True. The large expansion ratio is a result of the phase change where the water absorbs a substantial amount of heat during this process. Specifically, water absorbs 539 cal/g of heat during this phase change from liquid to gas. That heat input provides the energy necessary for the water molecules to overcome the intermolecular forces that hold them close together in the liquid state, allowing them to move much further apart as steam, thus significantly increasing the volume.
Liquids and solids have densities about 1000 times greater than gases. This implies that the distances between atoms and molecules in gases are about 10 times greater than the size of their atoms and molecules because the particles in gases are much more widely spaced out than in the condensed phases of matter (liquids and solids). The greater the distance between particles, the less dense the substance will be, since density is mass per unit volume.