9.

1 Physical and chemical changes

Physical changes
When liquid water freezes it becomes a
solid. When liquid water evaporates it
forms a gas. These are changes of state.
They are physical changes.
In a physical change, no new substances
are formed.
The solid water can be changed back
to a liquid by heating it. The gaseous
water can be changed back to a liquid by liquid to solid
cooling it. All of the time it is still water. liquid to gas
It looks different, but it is still the
same substance.

Chemical changes
In a chemical change, new substances are formed.
For example, when iron is heated with sulfur, a new substance – iron sulfide – is
formed. You learnt about this on pages 92–93.

iron + sulfur → iron sulfide

The iron and sulfur have reacted together to form a new substance. A chemical
reaction has taken place. The iron atoms have bonded with the sulfur atoms.
We can show what happens in a reaction using a word equation:
iron + sulfur → iron sulfide
In the equation, the arrow represents the chemical reaction. The reactants are
the substances that react together. The products are the new substances that are
made in the reaction.
reactants → products

Questions
1 Imagine that you drop a glass beaker and it breaks.
a Has a new substance been formed?
b Is this a physical change, or a chemical change?
2 In the reaction between iron and sulfur, what are the reactants and
the products?

108 9 Material changes

 9.1 Physical and chemical changes

Another chemical reaction

In the reaction between iron and sulfur, two reactants join together to form a
product. We say that the iron and sulfur combine to form iron sulfide.
In some chemical reactions, a substance breaks apart to produce two or more new
substances. On page 83, you saw how electricity can be used to make water split
into hydrogen and oxygen.

water → oxygen + hydrogen

Chemical reactions in living organisms

Chemical reactions happen everywhere. They happen in the garden inside plants
when they grow and when leaves decay. They happen inside your body to keep
you alive – for example, reactions to digest food (see page 22).

Questions
3 Inside your digestive system, protein molecules are broken down to amino
acid molecules. (You can read about digestion on page 28.)
a Has a new substance been formed?
b Has a chemical reaction taken place?
4 Respiration is a chemical reaction. You can see the word equation for
respiration on page 46.
a What are the reactants in the respiration reaction?
b What are the products in the respiration reaction?
5 Can you name a chemical reaction that happens in plants, but not
in animals?

Summary
• In a chemical reaction, new substances are formed.
• We can show what happens during a chemical reaction using
a word equation.
• The substances at the start of the reaction are the reactants. The
new substances that are formed are the products.

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