Question

Classify the following as physical or chemical properties: Metallic Sodium is soft enough to be cut with a knife.

Answer 1

Physical property:

• A physical property is known as any property that is measurable, and which describes a state of a physical system.
• Physical properties are properties that can be observed without bringing a chemical change.
• It is mainly used to identify or describe a substance.

Chemical property:

• A chemical property is known as any property that gets observed or measured when a substance undergoes a chemical change.
• A chemical reaction needs to be conducted to show the chemical properties.
• It is mainly used to predict how the reaction occurs in a substance.

Metallic sodium is soft enough to be cut with a knife:

• The given property is describing the physical property of the Metallic Sodium.
• The cutting knife does not involve any chemical reaction and also no new compound gets formed.
• Also, the softness of the Metallic Sodium describes the physical property of the metal.

Hence, the given example is a physical property.