What is the difference between characteristic properties and non-characteristic properties?
A characteristic property is one that is unique to something, that you could use to help identify it. This is usually a chemical or physical property/ A non-characteristic property is one that could change between examples of what you’re trying to identify, so it wouldn’t be useful for identification. Since this is more of a physical science question, I’ll use a physical science example to help explain this. Say you were trying to identify an unkown mineral that was clear. You could use it’s specific gravity/density (mass/volume), its hardness, or its melting point as possible characteristic properties, since these would remain the same for any sample you would test of the pure mineral. A non-characteristic property would be the mass (weight), since you’d expect a large sample to have more mass than a small one even if both samples were of the same mineral.
