Mrs. Clark decides to do a demonstration for her class with a piece of notebook paper. Using a balance, Mrs. Clark discovers that the mass of the paper is 20 g. She then takes the piece of paper and cuts it into several small pieces. The cumulative mass of the small pieces is 20 g. What has Mrs. Clark demonstrated for her class?

Question

Mrs. Clark decides to do a demonstration for her class with a piece of notebook paper. Using a balance, Mrs. Clark discovers that the mass of the paper is 20 g. She then takes the piece of paper and cuts it into several small pieces. The cumulative mass of the small pieces is 20 g. What has Mrs. Clark demonstrated for her class?
 A. 
a chemical change involving change of mass
 B. 
a physical change involving change of shape and size of matter
 C. 
a chemical change involving change of shape and size of matter
 D. 
a physical change involving change of mass

GPT-4o mini · Answer

Mrs. Clark has demonstrated a physical change involving change of shape and size of matter. The mass of the paper remains the same before and after it is cut, indicating that there is no change in mass. Therefore, the correct answer is:

B. a physical change involving change of shape and size of matter.