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12.1: Introduction to Physical Properties

  • Page ID
    476599
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    Lemonade, Lemons, Poolside, Drink, Refreshment, Summer
    Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\) (Credit: JillWellington; Source: pixabay; License: Pixabay License)

    Ahhhh! A tall glass of ice-cold lemonade is really refreshing on a hot day. Lemonade is a combination of lemon juice, water, and sugar. Do you know what kind of matter lemonade is? It is obviously not an element because it consists of more than one substance. Is it a compound? Not all combined substances are compounds. Think about everything we have learned regarding chemical bonding. There were specific amounts of each element necessary in each chemical bond in order for the octet rule to work. But we know that is not how it works for something like lemonade. When you ask someone how they would like their lemonade, they will often tell you how much sugar they want along with it. There is something different going on with lemonade, and in fact with most of the matter we interact with on a daily basis. Lemonade is what is called a mixture.

    In this chapter we will learn about properties of matter that are unrelated to chemical reactions. We can come up with some categories for matter. We will discuss keeping track of how much matter we have in both mixtures and pure substances. We will talk about phase changes, some types of mixtures and their properties, and how many of these properties show up in things we do on a day to day basis.


    This page titled 12.1: Introduction to Physical Properties is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Jamie MacArthur via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.