Scientific Principles and Matter Properties

Science and Technological Development

Basic science studies the properties of objects and the laws that govern them. Applied science seeks ways of making use of those properties. Technological development seeks to provide industrial-scale applications.

Characteristics of Scientific Research

Scientific research is planned, with specific initial objectives and phases; this helps to explain phenomena and make discoveries. Scientific research:

• Tries to find general solutions.
• Utilizes existing knowledge.
• Can be qualitative and quantitative.
• Leads to results and is a team effort.

Steps of the Scientific Method

1. Observation: The phenomenon that catches our attention.
2. Questioning: Asking "Why?" This is the problem or question preceding the observed phenomenon.
3. Hypothesis: A possible answer to the problem.
4. Development: Enabling fieldwork, creating a theoretical framework, experimentation, measurement, and analysis.
5. Conclusions.
6. Publication.

Classification of Natural Phenomena

• Physical phenomena: These are natural phenomena that do not alter the nature of matter (e.g., the falling of bodies or movements).
• Chemical phenomena: These involve the alteration of the nature of matter (e.g., combustion).
• Reversible phenomena: Changes where the matter returns to its original state (e.g., inflating a balloon).
• Irreversible phenomena: Those that are not able to return to their primitive form (e.g., inflating a balloon until it explodes).

Energy and Its Manifestations

Power: The capacity of a body to do work or perform some kind of movement. It can set in motion electric machines, and chemical reactions have the potential to blow up a battleship.

Manifestations of Energy

• The Sun: The largest source of energy we have access to; its source is nuclear energy.
• Food: Energetic capacity measured in calories; this is internal chemical energy being transferred as substances in our body for heat and movement.
• In a battery: By itself, it shows no energy, but when connected to an appliance, it contains electrical energy.
• In a moving object: A ball in motion represents mechanical energy.

Properties of Matter

These are the characteristics of matter we can perceive with the senses or with instruments.

• Extensive properties: Depend on the amount of matter (size, weight, mass, length, surface, volume).
• Intensive properties: Do not depend on size. These include organoleptic properties (color, flavor, smell) and physical properties (density, melting point, boiling point).

Specific Intensive Properties

• Density: The relationship between the mass and the volume that these substances occupy. It is a specific property of each substance.
• Boiling: The temperature at which a substance changes from liquid to vapor.
• Fusion: The temperature at which a substance exists in equilibrium between solid and liquid states; sometimes this equals solidification.
• Hardness: An intensive property, as the characteristic of hardness does not depend on the amount of mass, but on the type of material.
• Electrical and Thermal Conductivity: An intensive property that does not depend on the mass of the substance; it refers to the ability of the substance to conduct electrical current or heat.

Specific Extensive Properties

Volume: An extensive property because it depends on the amount of mass. Increasing the mass increases the volume, which is seen with the naked eye by an increase in size representation.