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Physical property
 
 
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A physical property is any aspect of an object or substance that can be measured
Measurement

Measurement is the process of assigning a number to an attribute according to a rule or set of rules. The term can also be used to refer to the result obtained after performing the process....
 or perceived
Perception

In psychology and the cognitive sciences, perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of sense information. It is a task far more complex than was imagined in the 1950s and 1960s, when it was predicted that building perceiving machines would take about a decade, a goal which is still very far from fruition....
 without changing its identity
Identity (philosophy)

In philosophy, identity is whatever makes an entity definable and recognizable, in terms of possessing a set of qualities or characteristics that distinguish it from entities of a different type....
. Physical properties can be intensive or extensive
Intensive and extensive properties

In the physical sciences, an intensive property , is a physical property of a system that does not depend on the system size or the amount of material in the system....
. An intensive property does not depend on the size or amount of matter in the object, while an extensive property does. In addition to extensiveness, properties can also be either isotropic
Isotropy

Isotropy is uniformity in all directions. Precise definitions depend on the subject area. The word is made up from Greek iso and tropos ....
 if their values do not depend on the direction of observation or anisotropic
Anisotropy

Anisotropy is the property of being directionally dependent, as opposed to isotropy, which means homogeneity in all directions. It can be defined as a difference in a physical property for some material when measured along different axes....
 otherwise.






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A physical property is any aspect of an object or substance that can be measured
Measurement

Measurement is the process of assigning a number to an attribute according to a rule or set of rules. The term can also be used to refer to the result obtained after performing the process....
 or perceived
Perception

In psychology and the cognitive sciences, perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of sense information. It is a task far more complex than was imagined in the 1950s and 1960s, when it was predicted that building perceiving machines would take about a decade, a goal which is still very far from fruition....
 without changing its identity
Identity (philosophy)

In philosophy, identity is whatever makes an entity definable and recognizable, in terms of possessing a set of qualities or characteristics that distinguish it from entities of a different type....
. Physical properties can be intensive or extensive
Intensive and extensive properties

In the physical sciences, an intensive property , is a physical property of a system that does not depend on the system size or the amount of material in the system....
. An intensive property does not depend on the size or amount of matter in the object, while an extensive property does. In addition to extensiveness, properties can also be either isotropic
Isotropy

Isotropy is uniformity in all directions. Precise definitions depend on the subject area. The word is made up from Greek iso and tropos ....
 if their values do not depend on the direction of observation or anisotropic
Anisotropy

Anisotropy is the property of being directionally dependent, as opposed to isotropy, which means homogeneity in all directions. It can be defined as a difference in a physical property for some material when measured along different axes....
 otherwise. Physical properties are referred to as observable
Observable

In physics, particularly in quantum physics, a system observable is a property of the State that can be determined by some sequence of physical operational definition....
s. It is not a modal property
Modal property

A modal property is a property representing possession of the qualities required to do something or get something done. It is a base concept, one of the base concepts mentioned as base types in the WordNet ontology of semantics....
.

Often, it is difficult to determine whether a given property is physical or not. Color, for example, can be "seen"; however, what we perceive as color is really an interpretation of the reflective properties of a surface. In this sense, many ostensibly physical properties are termed as supervenient
Supervenience

In philosophy, supervenience is a kind of dependency relationship, typically held to obtain between sets of Property . According to one standard definition, a set of properties A supervenes on a set of properties B, if and only if any two objects x and y which share all properties in B must also share all properties in A ....
. A supervenient property is one which is actual (for dependence on the reflective properties of a surface is not simply imagined), 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
Chemical property

A chemical property is any of a material's properties that becomes evident during a chemical reaction; that is, any quality that can be established only by changing a substance's Chemical substance....
 which determine the way a material behaves in a chemical reaction
Chemical reaction

A chemical reaction is a process that always results in the interconversion of chemical substances. The substance or substances initially involved in a chemical reaction are called reactants....
.

List of properties

The physical properties of an object are defined traditionally in a Newtonian
Classical mechanics

Classical mechanics is used for describing the motion of macroscopic objects, from projectiles to parts of machinery, as well as astronomical objects, such as spacecraft, planets, stars, and galaxies....
 sense; the physical properties an object might have include:

  • absorption
    Absorption (chemistry)

    File:Absorber.svgAbsorption, in chemistry, is a physical or chemical phenomenon or a Process in which atoms, molecules, or ions enter some bulk phase - gas, liquid or solid material....
  • area
    Area

    Area is a quantity expressing the two-dimensional size of a defined part of a surface, typically a region bounded by a closed curve. The term surface area refers to the total area of the exposed surface of a 3-dimensional solid, such as the sum of the areas of the exposed sides of a polyhedron....
  • boiling point
    Boiling point

    The boiling point of a liquid is the temperature at which the vapor pressure of the liquid equals the environmental pressure surrounding the liquid....
  • capacitance
    Capacitance

    In electromagnetism and electronics, capacitance is the ability of a body to hold an electrical charge.Capacitance is also a measure of the amount of electric charge stored for a given electric potential....
  • color
    Color

    Color or colour is the visual perception property corresponding in humans to the categories called red, yellow, blue and others....
  • concentration
    Concentration

    In chemistry, concentration is the measure of how much of a given chemical substance there is mixed with another substance. This can apply to any sort of chemical mixture, but most frequently the concept is limited to homogeneous solutions, where it refers to the amount of solute in the solvent....
  • conductance
    Conductance

    Conductance can refer to:*Electrical conductance*Fluid conductance*Thermal_conductivity#Thermal_Conductance*Conductance *Conductance ...
  • density
    Density

    The density of a material is defined as its mass per unit volume. The symbol of density is ....
  • dielectric
    Dielectric

    A dielectric is a nonconducting substance, i.e. an Insulator . The term was coined by William Whewell in response to a request from Michael Faraday....
  • ductility
    Ductility

    Ductility is a mechanical property used to describe the extent to which materials can be deformed deformation without fracture.In material science, ductility specifically refers to a material's ability to deform under tensile stress; this is often characterized by the material's ability to be stretched into a wire....
  • distribution
    Distribution

    Distribution may refer to:...
  • efficacy
    Efficacy

    Efficacy is the capacity to produce an effect.It is these conditions that distinguish efficacy from the related concept of effectiveness, which relates to change under real-life conditions....
  • electric charge
    Electric charge

    Electric charge is a fundamental conserved property of some subatomic particles, which determines their electromagnetic interaction. Electrically charged matter is influenced by, and produces, electromagnetic fields....
  • electric field
    Electric field

    In physics, the space surrounding an electric charge or in the presence of a time-varying magnetic field has a property called an electric field ....
  • electric potential
    Electric potential

    At a point in space, the electric potential is the potential energy per unit of electric charge that is associated with a static electric field....
  • emission
    Emission (electromagnetic radiation)

    In physics, emission is the process by which the energy of a photon is released by another entity, for example, by an atom whose electrons make a transition between two electronic energy levels....
  • flow rate
  • fluidity
  • frequency
    Frequency

    Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit time. It is also referred to as temporal frequency.The period is the duration of one cycle in a repeating event, so the period is the reciprocal of the frequency....
  • impedance
    Impedance

    Impedance may refer to:*the ratio of the voltage phasor to the electric current phasor, as in**Electrical impedance, a measure of opposition to time-varying electric current in an electric circuit....
  • inductance
    Inductance

    Inductance is the property in an electrical circuit where a change in the current flowing through that circuit induces an Electromotive force that opposes the change in current ....
  • intensity
  • irradiance
    Irradiance

    Irradiance, radiant emittance, and radiant exitance are radiometry terms for the power of electromagnetic radiation at a surface, per unit area....
  • length
    Length

    Length is the long dimension of any object. The length of a thing is the distance between its ends, its linear extent as measured from end to end....
  • location
    Absolute location

    Absolute location is the exact spot where something is on the earth. An example would be the longitude and latitude of a place. For instance, Lake Maracaibo of Venezuela is at 10?36' N latitude and 71?33' W longitude, which can be expressed as a decimal fraction: 10.6?N, 71.55?W....
  • luminance
    Luminance

    Luminance is a Photometry measure of the luminous intensity per unit area of light travelling in a given direction. It describes the amount of light that passes through or is emitted from a particular area, and falls within a given solid angle....
  • magnetic field
    Magnetic field

    A magnetism field is a vector field which can exert a magnetic force on moving electric charges and on magnetic dipoles . When placed in a magnetic field, magnetic dipoles tend to align their axes parallel to the magnetic field....
  • magnetic flux
    Magnetic flux

    Magnetic flux, represented by the Greek letter F , is a measure of quantity of magnetism, taking into account the strength and the extent of a magnetic field....
  • mass
    Mass

    In physical science, mass refers to the degree of acceleration a body acquires when subject to a force: bodies with greater mass are accelerated less by the same force....
  • melting point
    Melting point

    The melting point of a solid is the temperature range at which it changes states of matter from solid to liquid. At the melting point the solid and liquid phase exist in equilibrium....
  • moment
    Moment

    Moment may refer to:...
  • momentum
    Momentum

    In classical mechanics, momentum is the product of the mass and velocity of an object . For more accurate measures of momentum, see the section Momentum#Modern definitions of momentum on this page....
  • permeability
    Permeability (electromagnetism)

    In electromagnetism, permeability is the degree of magnetization of a material that responds linearly to an applied magnetic field. Magnetic permeability is typically represented by the Greek letter Mu ....
  • permittivity
    Permittivity

    Permittivity is a physical quantity that describes how an electric field affects, and is affected by a dielectric medium, and is determined by the ability of a material to polarization in response to the field, and thereby reduce the total electric field inside the material....
  • pressure
    Pressure

    Pressure is the force per unit area applied to an object in a direction surface normal to the surface. Gauge pressure is the pressure relative to the local atmospheric or ambient pressure....
  • radiance
    Radiance

    Radiance and spectral radiance are radiometry measures that describe the amount of light that passes through or is emitted from a particular area, and falls within a given solid angle in a specified direction....
  • solubility
    Solubility

    Solubility is often seen as a property of a substance; for instance the solubility of a solid substance usually refers to the concentration of the substance in a liquid that has reached equilibrium with the substance in solid phase ....
  • luster
  • resistance
    Electrical resistance

    The electrical resistance of an object is a measure of its opposition to the passage of a steady electrical current. An object of uniform cross section will have a resistance proportional to its length and inversely proportional to its cross-sectional area, and proportional to the resistivity of the material....
  • spin
    Rotation

    A rotation is a movement of an object in a circular motion. A two-dimensional object rotates around a center of rotation. A Three-dimensional space object rotates around a line called an axis....
  • strength
    Strength

    Strength may refer to:Physical ability:*Physical strength, as in people or animals*Superhuman strength, as in fictional characters*A common attribute in role-playing games....
  • temperature
    Temperature

    In physics, temperature is a physical property of a Physical system that underlies the common notions of hot and cold; something that feels hotter generally has the greater temperature....
  • tension
    Tension

    Tension may refer to:In science:*Tension , a force related to the stretching of an object *Electrical tension, see voltage*High-tension, in electrical power transmissions wires which carry high-voltages...
  • thermal transfer
    Thermodynamics

    In physics, thermodynamics is the study of the conversion of heat energy into different forms of energy ; different energy conversions into heat energy; and its relation to macroscopic variables such as temperature, pressure, and volume....
  • velocity
    Velocity

    In physics, velocity is defined as the Derivative of Position vector. It is a vector physical quantity; both speed and direction are required to define it....
  • viscosity
    Viscosity

    Viscosity is a measure of the Drag of a fluid which is being deformed by either shear stress or extensional stress. In everyday terms , viscosity is "thickness"....
  • volume
    Volume

    The volume of any solid, liquid, plasma, vacuum or theoretical object is how much three-dimensional space it occupies, often quantified numerically....


See also

  • Chemical property
    Chemical property

    A chemical property is any of a material's properties that becomes evident during a chemical reaction; that is, any quality that can be established only by changing a substance's Chemical substance....
  • Physical quantity
    Physical quantity

    A physical quantity is a physical property that can be Quantitative. This means it can be measured and/or calculated and expressed in numbers. For example, "weight" is a physical quantity that can be expressed by stating a number of some basic measurement unit such as pound or kilograms, while "beauty" is a property that is difficult to desc...
  • List of materials properties
    List of materials properties

    A materials Property is an intensive quantity, often quantitative property of a material, usually with a unit of measurement that may be used as a metrics of value to compare the benefits of one material versus another to aid in materials selection....
  • Zwick Roell Group
    Zwick Roell Group

    Background Information The Zwick Roell Group is the world market leader in static testing machines and systems for Materials_testing . They manufacture products which are used to evaluate the mechanical and Physical_properties and performance of Materials and Components , and have a rapidly growing business in the dynamic test seg...
     - Testing of physical properties