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Mesomorphic states: States of matter intermediate between solid and liquid. Plastic crystal: A molecular solid with long-range positional order but with constituent molecules retaining rotational freedom. Liquid crystal: Properties intermediate between liquids and crystals. Generally, able to flow like a liquid but exhibiting long-range ...
A physical property is any property of a physical system that is measurable. [1] The changes in the physical properties of a system can be used to describe its changes between momentary states. A quantifiable physical property is called physical quantity. Measurable physical quantities are often referred to as observables.
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.
Examples of intensive properties include temperature, T; refractive index, n; density, ρ; and hardness, η. By contrast, an extensive property or extensive quantity is one whose magnitude is additive for subsystems. [4] Examples include mass, volume and entropy. [5] Not all properties of matter fall into these two categories.
In this state, the distinction between liquid and gas disappears. A supercritical fluid has the physical properties of a gas, but its high density confers solvent properties in some cases, which leads to useful applications. For example, supercritical carbon dioxide is used to extract caffeine in the manufacture of decaffeinated coffee. [3]
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.
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.
A physical body as a whole is assumed to have such quantitative properties as mass, momentum, electric charge, other conserved quantities, and possibly other quantities. An object with known composition and described in an adequate physical theory is an example of physical system.