Year 8 Science · Unit 3 · Lesson 2

Physical Change vs Chemical Change

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Learning Goals

Warm Up

Because… chain

Fill in the missing effects to complete the causal chain for rusting iron. Each cause leads to the next step.

Iron is exposed to oxygen and water
→
Iron atoms react with oxygen molecules
→
Iron oxide (rust) is produced
→
The new substance has different properties to iron
→

Overall conclusion (is this physical or chemical? How do you know?):

Your Turn

Compare two

Complete the table to compare physical change and chemical change across each feature.

Feature Physical change Chemical change
Is a new substance formed?
Is it usually reversible?
What happens at particle level?
Does the chemical formula change?
One Australian example

Show What You Know

1. The Bureau of Meteorology monitors water evaporating from the ocean (physical) and lightning creating nitrogen oxides (chemical). For each process, state what happens to the particles involved and whether the chemical formula of the substance changes.

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2. Explain why boiling water looks more dramatic than rusting iron, yet boiling is physical and rusting is chemical. What is the most reliable test to tell them apart?

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Wrap Up

In one sentence, what was the main idea of this lesson?

HSCScience · Year 8 Science · Unit 3 · Lesson 2 · Apply Worksheet