Question

An intensive property is defined as a:

• A. physical property of a system that depends on the system size or the amount of material in the system.
• B. physical property of a system that does not depend on the system size or the amount of material in the system.
• C. dependent on the internal properties of the system.
• D. None of the above.

Answer 1

Answer: (B)

physical property of a system that does not depend on the system size or the amount of material in the system.

$Answer:-$ B

An intensive property is a bulk property, meaning that it is a physical property of a system that does not depend on the system size or the amount of material in the system. Examples of intensive properties include temperature(T), refractive index (n), density, and hardness of an object. When a diamond is cut, the pieces maintain their intrinsic hardness (until their size reaches a few atoms thick), so hardness is independent of the size of the system.

By contrast, an extensive property is additive for subsystems. This means the system could be divided into any number of subsystems, and the extensive property measured for each subsystem; the value of the property for the system would be the sum of the property for each subsystem. For example, both the mass, and the volume, of a diamond are directly proportional to the amount that is left after cutting it from the raw mineral. Mass and volume are extensive properties, but hardness is intensive.