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 physical 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 chemical change involving change of mass

GPT-4o mini · Answer

Mrs. Clark has demonstrated **B. a physical change involving change of shape and size of matter**. The mass of the paper remains the same before and after cutting, which indicates that the change in shape and size does not affect the mass, highlighting a physical change. There is no indication of a chemical change occurring, as the composition of the paper has not altered; it is still the same material, just in different forms (pieces).