Physical property facts for kids

A physical property is a property, quality or way that an object is. A physical property can always be measured without changing or making the object chemically different or different in a way that would effect its chemical or atomic structure. There are two types of physical properties: intensive and extensive.

• Intensive physical properties do not depend on how much of the object there is. For example, a small rock will be just as hard as a large rock. hardness, softness and speed (quickness) are intensive physical properties.

• Extensive physical properties change depending on how much of the object there is. For example, a small rock weighs less than a large rock. Volume, total mass, and weight are extensive physical properties.

It may be difficult to determine whether a given property is a material property or not. Color, for example, can be seen and measured; however, what one perceives as color is really an interpretation of the reflective properties of a surface and the light used to illuminate it. In this sense, many ostensibly physical properties are called supervenient. A supervenient property is one which is actual, but is secondary to some underlying reality. This is similar to the way in which objects are supervenient on atomic structure. A cup might have the physical properties of mass, shape, color, temperature, etc., but these properties are supervenient on the underlying atomic structure, which may in turn be supervenient on an underlying quantum structure.

Physical properties are contrasted with chemical properties which determine the way a material behaves in a chemical reaction.

List of properties

The physical properties of an object that are traditionally defined by classical mechanics are often called mechanical properties. Other broad categories, commonly cited, are electrical properties, optical properties, thermal properties, etc. Examples of physical properties include:

See also

In Spanish: Propiedad física para niños