Is mixing baking powered with water a chemical or physical change?

Answer 1

It is first a physical change, but depending on the ingredients being mixed it may be followed by chemical changes.

Answer 2

When the ingredients are mixed they can still be separated, so it's a physical change - but it is important to know that sometimes mixing of ingredients is accompanied by chemical reactions.

Once you bake the cake the ingredients can not be separated, so it's a chemical change.

Answer 3

Mixing baking powder with water is a chemical change. This is proven as gas bubbles (CO2) are formed. That is why baking powder is used in cooking to make cakes or bread rise.

Baking powder is usually made of an acid, a base and a filler. Three common ingredients are baking soda (a base), cream of tartar (an acid) and corn starch (filler). These are all dry powders, so that when they are mixed together, they do not react. However, when you add water to baking powder, the acid and the base are then in a solution together and begin to react.

Using the example above, the reaction would be:

NaHCO3 + KHC4H4O6 ----> KNaC4H4O6 + H2O + CO2

baking soda + cream of tartar --> potassium sodium tartrate + water + carbon dioxide