A physical property is any property that is measurable, whose value describes a state of a physical system. The changes in the physical properties of a system can be used to describe its transformations or evolutions between its momentary states. Physical properties are often referred to as observables. They are not modal properties.

Physical properties are often characterized as intensive and extensive properties. An intensive property does not depend on the size or extent of the system, nor on the amount of matter in the object, while an extensive property shows an additive relationship. These classifications are in general only valid in cases when smaller subdivisions of the sample do not interact in some physical or chemical process when combined.

The physical properties of an object that are traditionally defined by classical mechanics are often called mechanical properties. The physical properties of an object may include, but are not limited to: absorption, area, brittleness, color, density, elasticity, electric potential, fluidity, hardness, inductance, length, malleability, magnetic field, mass, momentum, pressure, resistivity, temperature, velocity, volume , etc.

This vCalc Physical Properties library contains equations, constants, datasets and calculators related to physical properties of materials.