The melting and re-solidifying of metals illustrates reversible material transformation

Evidence

Tin was the first friend he introduced me to. After giving me a piece to hold, to feel its softness, he placed it in an iron bowl which he then rested on the roaring fire. As the tin began to melt and the metallic liquid filled up the bowl, Dad’s eyes lit up. ‘All that is solid melts into liquid and, then, given enough heat, turns into steam. Even metals!’ Once he was confident I had appreciated the great transition from solid to liquid state, together we poured the liquid tin into a mould, immersed it in water to cool it down, and then broke the mould open so that I could, once again, take the tin in my hands to ascertain that our friend was back to normal – that it had been returned to its initial state. — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 27

Categorization

• DEFINE: Varoufakis’s father uses tin’s phase transitions as a physical metaphor for reversible states, laying groundwork for the book’s larger dialectic.
• XREF: connects to: Iron is transformed permanently by heating and quenching unlike gold — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 31; A closed system’s openness to modification while transforming itself is plasticity — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 1283

Broader Connections

• Iron is transformed permanently by heating and quenching unlike gold #contradicts (0.85) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 31
• A closed system’s openness to modification while transforming itself is plasticity #qualifies (0.70) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 1283