Pardon me if this is a dumb question: I took out a cold tub of butter. I scraped the top with a butter knife to make the butter soft. What is making it soft?

Question

Is it heat? Is scraping the butter with the knife making the butter softer to spread because it’s getting warmer? i’m drunk right now and just had buttered toast. thank you

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

You’re separating the bonds holding the fat together and filling the gap it with air.

Kind of like the difference between bending a piece of wood 1 inch thick and bending a stack of 100 paper sheets.