Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The characteristic properties of a substance are always the same whether the sample being observed is large or small. Thus, conversely, if the property of a substance changes as the sample size changes, that property is not a characteristic property. Examples of physical properties that aren't characteristic properties are mass and volume.
A material property is an intensive property of a material, i.e., a physical property or chemical property that does not depend on the amount of the material. These quantitative properties may be used as a metric by which the benefits of one material versus another can be compared, thereby aiding in materials selection.
On the other hand, some constants, such as K f (the freezing point depression constant, or cryoscopic constant), depend on the identity of a substance, and so may be considered to describe the state of a system, and therefore may be considered physical properties. "Specific" properties are expressed on a per mass basis.
In electronics and optics, intrinsic properties of devices (or systems of devices) are generally those that are free from the influence of various types of non-essential defects. [3] Such defects may arise as a consequence of design imperfections, manufacturing errors, or operational extremes and can produce distinctive and often undesirable ...
Properties may also be classified with respect to the directionality of their nature. For example, isotropic properties do not change with the direction of observation, and anisotropic properties do have spatial variance. It may be difficult to determine whether a given property is a material property or not.
The characteristic properties of elemental metals and nonmetals are quite distinct, as shown in the table below. Metalloids, straddling the metal-nonmetal border , are mostly distinct from either, but in a few properties resemble one or the other, as shown in the shading of the metalloid column below and summarized in the small table at the top ...
Chemical properties can be contrasted with physical properties, which can be discerned without changing the substance's structure. However, for many properties within the scope of physical chemistry, and other disciplines at the boundary between chemistry and physics, the distinction may be a matter of researcher's perspective.
Water is amphoteric, meaning that it can exhibit properties of an acid or a base, depending on the pH of the solution that it is in; it readily produces both H + and OH − ions. [c] Related to its amphoteric character, it undergoes self-ionization. The product of the activities, or approximately, the concentrations of H + and OH −