To explain that you need to talk about the interatomic bonds, which are electromagnetic ( though the exclusion principle is also involved ).
2.
Working with David Nelson and Marco Ronchetti, Steinhardt formulated mathematical expressions, known as " orientational order parameters ", for computing the degree of alignment of interatomic bonds in liquids and solids in 1981.
3.
Up to about twice as much energy ( on a per-atom basis ) per unit of temperature increase can be stored in a solid as in a monatomic gas, by this mechanism of storing energy in the potentials of interatomic bonds.