AKICILJ: state standards

[redbird]

We're back to reading the mind of a committee. In this case, I have a state standard (Tennessee, in case you care) that says students should be able to "Identify the common outcome of all chemical changes."

What does this mean? My best guess is conservation of mass, except that's explicitly listed later on. Maybe that the identity of the substance changes?

Comments

[cantkeepsilent.livejournal.com]

I'll guess that it has something to do with the difference between "chemical changes" and "physical changes", whatever those are. I'd guess that you're right that the key is that you wind up with different substances, and maybe also that there is probably going to be a change in the heat of the system one way or the other.

That's more or less it

[akicif.livejournal.com]

The phrasing of the question's not brilliant, but I think you've got it: in a chemical reaction, a new substance is formed which has a different arrangement of atoms from the reactants (as you say, the change in the heat of the system could go either way - or be arbitrarily small).