A pot of water is heated on a particular stove. After the temperature of the water has increased a certain amount (but not to the boiling point), the temperature stops rising even though heat continues to be transferred to the water. How would it be possible to transfer heat to the water without changing the temperature?
At this point, the heat applied is used to transform or change the state of the water molecules from liquid to gas, hence, there will be no rise in temperature.
This is known as the latent heat of vaporization. The "latent' means that the heat absorbed at this stage cannot be measured from the temperature rise of the system but is being used in state transformation from liquid to gaseous state by the water molecules. This gaseous water molecule is seen as vapour leaving the pot.
