On a cold winter day, a snowflake is placed in a large sealed jar in the sunshine (the jar otherwise being full of dry air). The sunlight turns the snow directly to water vapor, all this occurring at T=260K, well below freezing, so that no liquid water is ever formed (There is no need here to concern yourself with the temperature of the sun's surface). It takes 3000J/g to vaporize snow in this fashion. The snowflake has m=10^-3 g.
(a) By what numerical factor does the multiplicity of the water change? (The physical system here is the water, first existing as ice then as vapor.) Express your answer as 10^some power.
(b) Why, in simple microscopic terms, does the multiplicity change as you found it to in part (a)? That is , give one or more qualitative reason(s) why a change in multiplicity should occur.