1.2 Physical and Chemical Properties

There are two general types of properties of matter, quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative properties are properties that are measured and expressed with a number. Quantitative looks like the word quantity which should make you think of an amount or a number, as with quantitative properties will have a number associated with them. Qualitative properties aren’t going to require measurements and they’re usually based on observations.

A physical property is a property that can be observed and measured without changing the identity of a substance, and this is going to be based off the substances color, its melting point, boiling point, density, among others. A physical change is one in which the state of matter changes, but the identity of the matter does not change. Examples of this would be phase transitioning, melting, freezing, condensations, etc.

A chemical property is one that a substance exhibits as it interacts with other substances. Examples of this would be flammability or corrosiveness. We can also have a chemical change, and this is one that results in a change of composition. An extensive property depends on the amount of matter. If you think about mass for example, the mass of one scoop of sand on a balance gives you a certain mass, but then if scoop of sand is added, that mass increases. Mass would be considered an extensive property, meaning that mass is affected by how much is there. An intensive property independent of how much is there. An example of an intensive property is density. It doesn’t matter if you have 50 pounds or a thousand pounds of ice, the density of ice is going to be a constant at a particular temperature. If we can measure a property about matter, we call those quantitative properties and it’s going to have a unit associated with it.