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A chunk of ice at room temperature melts, even at though the process is endothermic. Why?

Answer 1

Well....its surroundings are at high temperature (room temperature should be #20^@C#) at least compared to the temperature of the (solid) ice.

The chunk of ice is absorbing energy, as heat, from its hot surroundings; you can simplify your system as follows: the chunk of ice at zero degrees immersed in a "sea" of air at #20^@C#; heat is passing from the air to the ice that melts.

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Answer 2

Peyton Adams

The melting process requires an input of energy to overcome the intermolecular forces holding the ice molecules together. While this process is endothermic, meaning it absorbs heat from the surroundings, room temperature provides enough thermal energy to supply the necessary heat for the ice to melt. Therefore, even though melting is an endothermic process, ice can still melt at room temperature.

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Answer from HIX Tutor

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.