Physical Changes

Have you ever broken a mirror and looked at its parts? Do the pieces of the mirror still show reflections? So is it still a mirror? What are the differences?

The only difference is the size and shape of the mirror. It still shows reflections and works the same as it did before it was broken. What the mirror went through was a physical change.

A physical change is a change that only affects things on the appearance level. In other words when an object undergoes a physical change, after the physical change it is still made up of the same substance as it did before, the only thing that changed was the appearance.

Here’s an easy example, take a piece of paper. Now tear it up into little bits. Are the bits still made of paper? Of course they are. You can still do everything you can do with paper before you ripped it up. Of course, it is only harder to write on because the size of paper is smaller!

A tricky physical change includes water. Water can be found in three different forms: solid, liquid and gas. These are called the three different states of matter, . Even though steam looks and acts totally different from ice, it is still water, so when ice melts or water evaporates to steam, it is undergoing a physical change. Even though steam has different properties than liquid water, the chemicals that make up water haven't changed.

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