Re: VRD: physical change or a chemical change

Date: Thu May 3 18:14:05 2001
Posted By: T. J. Wilkinson, Post-doc/Fellow, General Chemistry and Forensic Science, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Area of science: Chemistry
ID: 988842498.Ch

Message:


Fergus,

Definitely chemical if you go by a question/definition that I have found 
works very well: Is the substance(s) destroyed?  If yes, then it is a 
chemical change.  The process of burning is combustion and results 
in the loss of a substance and the gain of another substance (could 
be carbon if you burned it bad). In this case, you are burning sugars 
and other substances in the crust, and they are being replaced with 
other carbon compounds.

T. J. Wilkinson

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