BioMedical Admissions Test (BMAT) Practice Test

The volatility of a liquid is defined by its ease of evaporation. Volatility refers to how readily a substance undergoes a change from a liquid to a vapor state. A volatile liquid has a high tendency to evaporate, which means that molecules at the surface of the liquid are able to escape into the gas phase with relative ease.

Factors contributing to volatility include the liquid's intermolecular forces; weaker intermolecular forces facilitate easier escape of molecules into the vapor phase. Substances with higher vapor pressures at a given temperature are considered more volatile because they will evaporate more readily compared to less volatile substances.

The other options relate to properties of liquids but do not directly define volatility. The ability to freeze pertains to the liquid's freezing point rather than its evaporation characteristics. The temperature at which a liquid boils indicates a specific condition of phase change but does not give a general sense of how easily the liquid evaporates. The density of a liquid refers to its mass per unit volume and does not provide any direct information about evaporation or volatility.