Properties of Matter

PROPERTIES OF MATTER

When you choose your clothes, your lunch, or your shampoo, you are making choices based on the properties of matter. Properties help identify matter. There are two types of properties: physical and chemical.

1. Physical Properties:  A property that can be observed or measured without forming a new substance.

Examples:  Color  Density: the amount of matter per unit volume  State of matter: solid, liquid or gas  Hardness: measure of the resistance of a solid to being scratched or dented  Malleability: i.e. gold can be hammered into thin sheets, yet glass will not, so it is brittle.  Ductility: the ability of a substance to be pulled into wires.  Melting and Boiling Points: measures what temperature a solid turns into a liquid or what temperature a liquid becomes a gas  Crystal form: definite structure of cubes or blocks with a regular pattern  Solubility: the ability of a substance to dissolve in a solvent such as water  Viscosity: how easily a liquid flows There are two types of physical properties:

 Qualitative Property: characteristics that can be described but not measured such as color, smell ductility.

 Quantitative Property: characteristics that can be measured with numbers such as melting point and density.

2. Chemical Properties:  A property that describes how a substance reacts with another substance when forming a new substance.

Example:  Combustibility: the ability of a substance to burn in the air  Reaction with acid

Chemical Physical Properties Qualitative Quantitative Properties Combustibility Colour Melting temperature Reacts with air texture Boiling temperature Reacts with pure Taste and smell density oxygen Reacts with acids state viscosity Reacts with water Malleability solubility (hammered) Stability Ductility Heat or electrical (stretched) conductivity

CHANGES IN MATTER Matter can undergo two types of changes: physical change and chemical change.

1. Physical Change:  No new substance is formed.  New properties may appear but the particles of the starting substance or substances are not changed.  Most physical changes are easy to reverse.

Examples:  Change of state: boiling, melting, freezing, condensation, sublimation  Dissolving: forming a solution with a solute and a solvent

2. Chemical Change:  Always causes a least one new substance with new properties to be formed.  May be difficult or even impossible to reverse.

Examples:  burning paper: gases are released, soot and ashes are formed.  rusting of nails: rust is formed from the metal and oxygen

***Common indicators of a chemical change***

 Color change  Odor change  Gas produced  Energy given off or taken in  Precipitate formed