Sunday, November 11, 2018

everyday chemistry - Is crushing an avocado a chemical or physical change?



Applying pressure can result in chemical changes, does this hold true for an avocado?



Answer



Your title and question are a bit different.




Is crushing an avocado a chemical or physical change?



Physical. Crushing (or any other physical manipulation of) any substance is, by definition, a physical change. However, those physical changes can affect the conditions for a chemical change, potentially causing a noticeable change in the rate of said reaction. You somewhat acknowledge this in your question, though I'm not sure it's quite intentional:



Applying pressure can result in chemical changes, does this hold true for an avocado?



Under reasonable conditions, I'm fairly sure that nothing in an avocado is reactive enough to undergo a chemical change because of any conditions the physical crushing altered. Except that it will increase the surface area and speed up oxidization. Given enough of a crushing pressure (e.g. equivalent to the pressure put on coal to create diamond) I'm sure some chemical reaction or another will occur.


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