Matter - Properties and Changes Flashcards
States of Matter
The physical forms in which all matter naturally exists on Earth - most commonly as solid, liquid, or gas.
solid
a form of matter that has its own definite shape and volume, is incompressible and expands only slightly when heated.
liquid
a form of matter that flows, has constant volume, and takes the shape of its container.
gas
a form of matter that flows to conform to the shape of its container, fills the container’s entire volume, and is easily compressed.
vapor
gaseous state of a substance that is a liquid or a solid at room temperature.
physical property
a characteristic of matter that can be observed or measure without changing the sample’s composition.
extensive property
a physical property, such as mass, length, and volume, that is dependent upon the amount of substance present.
intensive property
a physical property that remains the same no matter how much of a substance is present.
chemical property
the ability or inability of a substance to combine with or change into one or more new substances.
physical change
a type of change that alters the physical properties of a substance but does not change its composition.
phase change
a transition of matter from one state to another
chemical change
a process involving one or more substances changing into new substances; also called a chemical reaction.
law of conservation of mass
states that mass is neither created nor destroyed during a chemical reaction but is conserved.
mixture
a physical blend of two or more pure substances in any proportion in which each substances retains its individual properties.
heterogenous mixture
one that does not have uniform composition and in which the individual substances remain distinct.
homogeneous mixture
one that has a uniform composition throughout and always has a single phase; also called a solution
solution
a uniform mixture that can contain solids, liquids, or gases
filtration
a technique that uses a porous barrier to separate a solid from a liquid
distillation
a technique that can be used to physically separate most homogeneous mixtures based on the differences in the boiling points of the substances.
crystallization
a separation technique that produces pure solid particles of a substance from a solution that contains the dissolved substance.
sublimation
the energy-requiring process by which a solid changes directly to a gas without first becoming a liquid.
chromatography
a technique that is used to separate the components of a mixture based on the tendency of each component to travel or be drawn across the surface of a fixed substrate.
element
a pure substance that cannot be broken down into simpler substances by physical or chemical means.
periodic table
a chart that organizes all known elements into a grid or horizontal rows (periods) and vertical columns (groups or families) arranged by increasing atomic number.
compound
a chemical combination of two or more different elements; can be broken down into simpler substances by chemical means and has properties different from those of its component elements.
law of definite proportions
states that, regardless of the amount. a compound is always composed of the same elements in the same proportion by mass.
percent by mass
a percentage determined by the ratio of the mass of each element to the total mass of the compound.
law of multiple proportions
states that when different compounds are formed by the combination of the same elements, different masses of one element combine with the same fixed mass of the other element in a ratio of small whole numbers.
