What are physical and chemical characteristics?

Physical and chemical characteristics are like the superpowers your favorite toys have, some help them look cool, others make them do amazing things.

Imagine you have two blocks: one is soft and squishy like a pillow, and the other is hard and bumpy like a brick. The physical characteristics are what you can see or feel without changing the block itself. That means size, color, shape, how heavy it is, all these things are physical characteristics.

Now think about when you mix baking soda with vinegar, fizz! It makes a bubbly mess. That’s a chemical characteristic because it changes what the substance actually is. If you have two types of candy and one melts in your hand while the other stays firm, that’s also a chemical characteristic, it shows how they react when things change inside them.

So, physical characteristics are like the clothes your toy wears, and chemical characteristics are like the secret powers hidden inside!