Physical Properties

Physical properties can be seen, touched, or even measured without the identity of the substance changing. The identity of the substance can be its shape or color. Three physical forms of a substance are solid, liquid, and gas. Water for example can transform into all three physical forms without its identity changing. The characteristic of water as a shape can be used as an example of a physical property. Water can be frozen into ice, vaporized, or liquidized. The shape of water as a solid is a frozen ice cube. Water as a liquid has no shape but can take the shape of a container its poured into and be measured. Water as gas can also take the shape of a container it is poured into but really has no definite shape due to the particles being far apart. Water remains the same substance in all three physical forms. Another example is a penny. It’s physical properties are round, gold, and shiny.

A chemical property describes how matter can undergo changes in composition on its own or as it interacts with other matter. Chemical properties are the ability of a substance to transform into a new substance which then causes the substance to have a different physical property and a different chemical property. An example of a chemical property is corrosion. Hydrogen also has the ability to ignite and explode given the right conditions. When a person throws a piece of solid wood into a fire place, the wood burns turning into ashes. Therefore, both physical and chemical properties have changed.
A physical reaction is when a form of substance is changed but the substance stays the same. It rearranges the substance’s molecules but does not affect the internal structure. For example when frozen water turns into liquid. The water physically changed but the substance remained the same. Other examples are, crushing a soda can, or breaking a glass bottle. A physical change does not produce a new substance.

A chemical reaction is a rearrangement of atoms during which some of the original chemical bonds are broken and new bonds are formed to give new bonds chemical structures. For example, “in our bodies, chemical reactions convert food into molecules to build muscles and move them” (Timberlake, 2010). In every chemical reaction, the substances that are present in the beginning are the reactants. The substances after the reaction is completed, the substances present are called products. In chemical reactions new substances are made.

Both elements and compounds are pure substances; however, they have different characteristics. An element is the simplest type of pure substance which cannot be broken down further more. It is made up of only one type of substance for example