Thursday, July 26, 2012

Different Kinds of Properties

All elements and compounds have properties. Properties are just things we use to describe matter. Examples of properties of elements and compounds are color, volume, absorption of light, temperature, and odor. There are many ways you can describe matter, and all properties are classified in two ways...

Intensive and Extensive

Properties are either intensive or extensive depending of whether the property changes with the amount of the substance.
Values of intensive properties don't change no matter how much of a substance you have. Examples are melting point, boiling point, density, and malleability.
Extensive properties do change with the amount of the substance. Examples: volume, area, momentum, and mass.

Physical and Chemical
Properties can also be classified as being either physical or chemical. This depends on whether the property changes the chemical makeup of the substance.
Physical properties are ones that don't change the chemical makeup of a substance. Examples are temperature, mass, solubility, brittleness, density, and viscosity.
Chemical properties are ones that you notice when a substance undergoes a chemical reaction, changing it's chemical makeup. Examples: rusting, combustibility, and toxicity.  

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