Final answer:
Heating an aluminum pan is a physical reaction involving a change in the pan's temperature through energy transfer without altering the pan's chemical composition. The heat transfer equation is used to calculate the required heat for changing the temperature of both the pan and the water in it.
Step-by-step explanation:
Heating an aluminum pan is primarily a physical reaction because it involves a change in the temperature of the pan without altering its chemical composition. When you heat an aluminum pan on a stove to raise the temperature of the water inside it from 20.0°C to 80.0°C, you are engaging in energy transfer that can be described by the equation for heat transfer Q = mc∆T, where'm' is the mass, 'c' is the specific heat capacity, and '∆T' is the change in temperature.
The amount of heat required to increase the temperature can be calculated using this equation for both the aluminum pan and the water. The calculation would also consider the percentage of total heat that is absorbed by the pan versus the water. During this process, no new substances are formed, which helps distinguish it from a chemical reaction, like the thermite reaction, which is an exothermic chemical process involving aluminum powder and iron(III) oxide resulting in the formation of new compounds such as iron and aluminum oxide.