What is a physical property? Provide an example?

What is a physical property? Provide an example?

• A. A characteristic that describes how a substance changes to form new substances.
• B. A chemical property such as flammability.
• C. A property that requires a chemical reaction to observe.
• D. A characteristic that can be observed without changing the substance; example: density, color, hardness.

Answer: (D)

Physical properties are features you can observe or measure about a material without changing it into something else. For example, density tells you how much mass is packed into a given volume, color is what you see, and hardness describes how easily the material can be scratched. All of these can be determined without causing any chemical change to the substance. In contrast, the other options describe qualities that appear only when the substance undergoes a chemical reaction or changes into new substances, such as flammability or any property observed only after a chemical change. So, observing density, color, or hardness without altering the substance exemplifies a physical property.

Physical properties are features you can observe or measure about a material without changing it into something else. For example, density tells you how much mass is packed into a given volume, color is what you see, and hardness describes how easily the material can be scratched. All of these can be determined without causing any chemical change to the substance. In contrast, the other options describe qualities that appear only when the substance undergoes a chemical reaction or changes into new substances, such as flammability or any property observed only after a chemical change. So, observing density, color, or hardness without altering the substance exemplifies a physical property.