What term refers to the heat associated with a phase change?

The term that refers to the heat associated with a phase change is latent heat. Latent heat represents the energy absorbed or released during a phase transition at a constant temperature, such as when a substance changes from solid to liquid (melting) or from liquid to gas (evaporation).

During these transitions, the temperature of the substance remains constant while heat is added or removed, allowing it to change its state without changing its temperature. This is crucial in understanding phenomena such as boiling water or melting ice, where the energy goes into changing the state rather than increasing the temperature.

In contrast, specific heat refers to the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of a unit mass of a substance by one degree Celsius, not associated with a phase change. Thermal energy encompasses the total kinetic energy of the particles in a substance, which includes both temperature change and phase change but is not specifically tied to phase transitions. Potential energy relates to the position of an object within a force field (like gravity), rather than the heat involved in phase changes.