Why does a compound have characteristic properties?

Question

I need help with that question for chemistry!

Answer 1

because a particular compound has a definite composition of atoms and obeys a definite proportion on how much of an atom combine with another.

two different compounds will either have different atoms that make up them or will have same atoms but with different proportions on how they combined

e.g. NaCl is different from KCl because of Na and K (law of definite composition)

KClO is different from KClO4 because although the atoms are the same, number of O differs (law of definite proportion)