Changes in our surroundings

Each and every day we observe any kind of change happening in our surroundings. These changes might be happening with the involvement of one substance or it might be more than one. Stretching a rubber band, souring of curd, cutting of a paper, rusting of iron, etc. all are the changes that are making a difference either to the shape, appearance, or taste. Here the changes occur be it physically or chemically. Therefore the changes happening in our surroundings are of two types:

  • Physical change 
  • Chemical change

What is a physical change?

Physical changes could be defined as those changes which change the physical form of the chemical substances but also to remember, it does change its composition. The term physical change explains itself that these are changes to the physicality of a substance. 

Physical changes play a very important role when the mixtures need to be separated into component compounds differently while the limitation to this physical change is that it can not be used to separate the compound form of elements into elements.

Physical changes are not associated with bringing a change in the chemical composition. These physical changes possess features like they can be reversed(physical changes are reversible).

When a physical change occurs to somebody then it only changes its physical properties like shape, texture, size, colour, etc.

To better understand the physical changes some of its examples are: 

  • dissolving salt in water( this is a reversible change as when the saltwater is heated the water evaporates and the salt can be produced back as it was before).
  • Stretching of a rubber( this is a physical change that changes the length of rubber and if force is removed it returns to its original size, hence reversible).

What is a chemical change?

Chemical changes could be defined as a type of change in which the substance transforms (one or more combined) in such a way that a new substance is formed. In chemistry, these types of changes are also called chemical syntheses. These chemical changes can also occur due to the breaking of two or more substances to form a new one.

Chemical changes are also known as chemical reactions and as the physical changes are reversible these chemical changes do not reverse( they are irreversible). If one wants to reverse these changes then, the chemical reactions need to be performed on the substance.

The chemical change is a vast concept covering a lot of changes that occur like heat produced, heat absorbed, rearrangement of atoms, changes in energy, production of new substances, and much more.

Some of the simple examples to understand chemical changes are:

  • The milk is getting sour. This is a chemical change and once this happens the milk can not be obtained back,
  • Burning the wood. This is a chemical change where the wood in presence of oxygen burns and transforms into a new product, ashes. 
  • Examples of physical changes

Examples of physical changes are:

  • Water gets frozen into ice.
  • Mixing the sand and water.
  • Sugar gets dissolved in water.
  • Heating of water to convert from liquid to gaseous state. 
  • Cutting of wooden pieces into much smaller pieces.
  • Examples of chemical changes

Examples of chemical changes are:

  • Eating food and digesting it.
  • Milk getting converted into curd
  • Wood burning and turning into ashes
  • Formation of mixtures when acid bases are combined.
  • Electroplating of the object is a process to cover one metal with another to make it more resistant to corrosion. 

CONCLUSION

The chemical and physical changes are a part of daily life, occurring in one another moment. It is just that these chemical and physical changes can not be bound to some limitations like they are reversible or irreversible. The chemistry of physical and chemical changes is vast with a lot of exceptions too.