Volatility (chemistry) Volatility (chemistry) In chemistry and physics, volatility is quantified by the tendency of a substance to vaporize. Volatility is directly related to a substance's vapor pressure. At a given temperature, a substance with higher vapor pressure vaporizes more readily than a substance with a lower vapor pressure. The term is primarily written to be applied to liquids; however, it may be used to describe the process of sublimation which is associated with solid substances, such as dry ice (solid carbon dioxide) and osmium tetroxide (OsO), which can change directly from the solid state to a vapor, without becoming liquid. The
Comparison of chemistry and physics experimental techniques caught up. In chemistry, the role of theory historically has been a retrospective one, summarizing experimental data and predicting the outcome of similar experiments. However, with the increasing power of computational methods in chemistry, it has become possible to predict whether a hypothetical compound is stable or not before experimental data is available. In a typical undergraduate program for physics majors, required courses are in the sub-disciplines of physics, with additional required courses in mathematics. Because much of the insight of physics is described by differential equations relating matter, space, and time (for example Newton's law of motion