Question

Describing physical and chemical changes:

An industrial chemist is studying a sample of an unknown metal. Describe two ways he could change the metal physically and two ways he could change the metal chemically to try to identify it.

Answer 1

Your answer may include the following changes:

Heat the metal until it melts (physical change).

Attempt to react the metal with oxygen (chemical change).

Stretch the metal into a wire (physical change).

Attempt to react the metal with acid (chemical change).

Answer 2

Physical: The chemist could try to bend it to find out how malleable it is. He could also try to pull it into wires to find out how ductile it is.

Chemical: The chemist could put the metal into contact with other substances to get an idea of how reactive it is, and he could try to burn it and find out how flammable it is.