Definition of Physical Change
Miscellanea / / July 04, 2021
By Florencia Ucha, in Sep. 2012
A physical change is the concept that allows us to designate that transformation of matter that is characterized by not presenting a variation in regard to its nature.
Modification that occurs in a matter or living being, on the physical plane, without modifying its essence
In other words, in these types of changes there is no change in the composition of the substance in question, and therefore no new substances will be generated while the process lasts.
So in this type of change it is emphasized that the essential, its nature, remains the same despite the transformation that something may go through.
If an element that makes up nature stopped showing off one of its elements in the process of change, we would be facing another type of modification, which is chemistry.
There is a huge variety of physical changes that are noticeable to all ordinary people because they happen in everyday life and domestic, for example, if we heat a piece of ice, by the action of heat, it will change from the solid state to the liquid state (Water).
Human beings change physically as a consequence of development
On the other hand, human beings constantly undergo changes in our physical appearance, which they are precisely called physical changes, and they are closely related to the biological development of the person.
The biological growth process occurs in all organisms alive, no exceptions.
Cells are dividing, growing, multiplying, and undergoing transformations that cause people to have a different physical appearance over time; the composition will be the same, what will be modified is the physical, that is, the external shape of our body, the appearance, the volume of some parts.
For example, in women, the arrival of puberty produces a progressive increase in the size of the breasts, to name a few of the changes recognized physical characteristics that women undergo in this stage of human life in which physical changes proliferate, and that mark the passage from girl to woman.
And in both genders, male and female, at this same stage, body height increases, the muscles become develops, and hairs appear on different parts of the body such as the pubis, legs, armpits, between others.
It is very important to understand physical change because this also allows us to understand the processes that occur in nature and that drive them.
One of the main characteristics of this type of phenomenon is the reversibility, a situation that implies that the change undergone will not be permanent, then, after the substance experiences one state and transforms into another, immediately afterwards it will be able to recover its properties original.
Measurement and observation capture physical changes
Among the most recurrent ways that exist to detect these types of changes are, on the one hand, the observation, from which the essential characteristics of an element will be detected using the senses as exclusive tools.
And on the other hand appears the measurement, which is one of the most common methods science uses to investigate phenomena and that consists of the comparison of a sample with the object in question that has the physical magnitude to be measured.
It should be noted that state changes are examples of physical changes.
Examples of this type of change are melting point and boiling point.
The boiling point lies in the temperature in which matter goes from a liquid state to a gaseous state, putting it in simpler terms, when water boils we are at the boiling point.
And for its part, the melting point consists of that temperature at which matter passes from the solid state to the liquid state, generating its melting.
Generally, this point is used when checking the purity of some compounds.
And finally it is important that we emphasize that physical change occurs in various areas and can be applied in the biology, as we have already seen and exemplified, in astronomy, in physics, in geology and more ...
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