Matter 3

Matter Properties of Matter

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Just as you use several adjectives to describe someone (color of hair or eyes, how tall or short, etc.) several properties, or characteristics, must be used in combination to adequately describe a kind of matter. Simply saying that something is a colorless liquid isn't enough to identify it as water. A lot of liquids are colorless, e.g. most alcohols and cyclohexane, as well as many solutions. More details are needed before one can zero in on the identity of a substance. Chemists will therefore, determine several properties, both chemical and physical, in order to characterize a particular sample of matter. The folowing chart shows the differences between the two kinds of properties, chemical and physical, as well as how the two kinds of physical properties, intensive and extensive, differ.

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