What is the difference between a chemical and a physical property of a substance?

Answer 1

A physical property can be observed without changing the material's composition. A chemical property can only be observed when a chemical change takes place.

Answer 2

Physical properties are properties that do notchange the nature of matter. Chemical properties are properties that do change the nature of matter.

Physical changes are reversible. Chemical changes are irreversible.

So a rusting nail and making toast would be chemical changes because they are irreversible.

Answer 3

Physical properties are things like... its melting point, its colour, its density, whether it is a liquid or a solid etc. It's chemical properties are things like, is it acidic or alkaline? Is it a metal or non metal? Is it an element or a compound.

Answer 4

The major difference between physical and chemical properties in matter is that physical properties can be detected by the senses, i.e. what does it look, feel smell like? Chemical properties, however, are more technical and involve how it reacts with other matter, its molecular formula, and attributes of that nature. You can physically separate many water molecules into into many steam molecules using heat without chemically breaking the bonds that hold an oxygen to hydrogen within an individual H2O molecule.

Answer 5

Physical properties are about what properties that particular kind of matter, be it a material or a subatomic particle, has in itself. This is things like charge, melting point, mass, density.

Chemical properties on the other hand describes how this particular kind of matter interacts and reacts will other matter, of the same or different kinds. These kind of properties may be about what kind of bindings it can make and how many, as an example.

Physics are about the nature of matter and energy.

Chemistry are about the relations between particles/molecules in matter.

Answer 6

Physical property = anything detectable by the senses. Examples: color, hardness, smell. Chemical property = how it interacts with other types of matter. Examples: reactivity, chemical composition.

Answer 7

A chemical property can only be observed by causing a change in the chemical composition of the substance through a chemical reaction. A physical property can be observed without changing the chemical composition of the substance.

Answer 8

A physical property is one which describes how the substance is, or something it can do without changing into a different substance. For instance, iron metal is grey, conducts electricity and heat well and is magnetic. These are physical properties. Iron can corrode, forming rust by reaction with water and oxygen, and it can react with hydrochloric acid to form iron(II) chloride and hydrogen. These are some of its chemical properties, the reactions it undergoes.

Answer 9

The physical properties of matter include the chemical properties as well as the familiar (density, conductivty, weight, etc) and nuclear properties of matter.

Answer 10

The chemical properties are visible only in chemical reactions.