Mechanical weathering increases the rate of chemical weathering. As rock breaks into smaller pieces, the surface area of the pieces increases. With more surfaces exposed, there are more places for chemical weathering to occur ( Figure below ). Let’s say you wanted to make some hot chocolate on a cold day. It would be hard to get a big chunk of chocolate to dissolve in your milk or hot water. Maybe you could make hot chocolate from some smaller pieces like chocolate chips, but it is much easier to add a powder to your milk. This is because the smaller the pieces are, the more surface area they have. Smaller pieces dissolve more easily.
Context:
Michael and his brother John are making protein shakes. They are mixing different sizes of protein powder into the shakes to see if that impacts how the powder dissolves into the shake. Michael makes his shake using large individual pieces of protein powder, while John makes his shake using small individual pieces of powder.
Q: Whose shake will have more easily dissolved protein powder?