Properties and Changes of Properties in Matter, Grades 5-8 Substances have different characteristic properties. The types of substances included in a mixture play an important role in determining the properties of the final mixture. A characteristic property of fat is its insolubility in water. Water-soluble food colors will spread and dissolve in water, but their motion is retarded in homogenized milk because milk contains globules of fat. The swirling and churning motion that students observe is partly due to the attraction between soap and the milk's fat particles.
Substances have different characteristic properties.
When different substances are combined together to make a mixture, the resulting mixture has different properties depending upon the amount of each substance included. The physical properties of compounds reflect the nature of the interactions among their molecules. Water molecules are polar, which enables the negative end of one molecule to attract the positive end of a neighboring molecule, ultimately causing water's strong cohesive force. The electric force is a universal force that exists between any two charged objects. Water is a polar molecule, resulting from the uneven distribution of charge in the molecule.