In our daily lives we come across many materials with various different properties. Some of these include:

• density
• hardness
• electrical conductivity
• thermal conductivity
• color
• reflectivity
• transparency
• malleability
• ductility
• radioactivity
• magnetism

Figuring out the properties of a material, a process in materials science called characterization, is the act of figuring out what the properties of a material are.

What are the properties that make a metal a metal

A metal has to have the following properties:

• electrical conductivity
• thermal conductivity
• malleability
• reflectivity
• ductility

Metals are usually found in crystalline structures of atoms which share electrons between the atoms.

It's this sharing of electrons that keeps the material together and also leads to other properties like electrical conductivity of the material. All pure metals have conductivity, although some are much better conductors than others. For example silver is an excellent conductor of electricity whereas tungsten is less conductive.

Crystal structure

Materials have properties that depend not just on the types of elements that are contained in them but the physical structure with which those elements are arranged.

For example both graphite and diamonds are compounds formed of just carbon atoms however due to their different crystalline structure they have very different properties as materials.

We see similar things with metals too. Based on how the structure of the atoms is formed we will see different materials properties. This is why there's different qualities of things like steel even if the atoms contained in them are the same types.

The structure of materials makes an enormous difference to the strength properties of a metal. This is one of the reasons why foundries pay careful attention to the metals that they produce.