Matter and Its Properties

What is a property?

- An observable quality of a substance.

“Is the property of matter determined by changing the identity of the substance?”

If this property of matter is determined by changing the identity of the substance and the answer is no,
then it is the physical property. Physical properties are those that can be observed without changing the
identity of the substance. There are two types of physical property which is an extensive physical
property such as mass, volume, length, and shape and depend on the amount of matter that is present.
A physical property that does not depend on the amount of matter known as intensive physical property
have examples such as color, melting point, boiling point, and density.

Now back to our question at hand. If the answer is yes, then it is a chemical property. Chemical
properties describe how a substance changes into a completely different substance and are determined
by changing the identity of the substance by reacting it with a different substance, it refers to a
substance reactivity on air, acid, base, water, and other chemicals.

Physical and Chemical Change

Physical Change –

- A type of change in which the form of matter is altered but the properties are not transformed
into another. The size or shape of matter may be changed, but no chemical reaction occurs.

Chemical Change –

- A type of change in which the substance changes its state and gains new properties. A way of
achieving chemical change is through combusting or burning.

Evidences of Chemical change:

change in temperature

change in color

odor emission (whether good or bad)

formation of a precipitate

formation of bubbles (mostly when heating something up or mixing which causes a reaction)