I am a 9th grade learner at an international school, During our chemistry lesson, we were differentiating between physical changes and chemical changes (in relation with mixtures and compounds). Our teacher told us that cutting our nails is a chemical change and I want to know why. Please make it simple enough for me to understand, if anyone out there knows the answer.
How is cutting your nails a chemical change, and not a physical change?
The cells that make up your fingernails and toenails are dead which is why it does not hurt when you cut them. But because nails grow from living cells under your cuticles it is considered a chemical change when you cut them.
How is cutting your nails a chemical change, and not a physical change?
Well, I really consider it as a physical change, but if your teacher insist that it is a chemical change then...your nail is made uy of long chains of protein fibers such as keratin, when you cut you nails den it would literally cut the long strands of the protein giving the protein a new configuaration...
Maybe because bonds are broken while doing so.
I disagree with your teacher. There is no difference in the chemical composition of a nail clipping as compared to an uncut nail. Clipping nails is definitely a physical change.
