Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The distinction between intensive and extensive properties has some theoretical uses. For example, in thermodynamics, the state of a simple compressible system is completely specified by two independent, intensive properties, along with one extensive property, such as mass. Other intensive properties are derived from those two intensive variables.
Altitude (or elevation) is usually not a thermodynamic property. Altitude can help specify the location of a system, but that does not describe the state of the system. An exception would be if the effect of gravity need to be considered in order to describe a state, in which case altitude could indeed be a thermodynamic property.
[23] 0.23 ppm of the earth's mass is water and 97.39% of the global water volume of 1.38 × 10 9 km 3 is found in the oceans. [ 84 ] Water is far more prevalent in the outer Solar System, beyond a point called the frost line , where the Sun's radiation is too weak to vaporize solid and liquid water (as well as other elements and chemical ...
The term phase is sometimes used as a synonym for state of matter, but it is possible for a single compound to form different phases that are in the same state of matter. For example, ice is the solid state of water, but there are multiple phases of ice with different crystal structures, which are formed at different pressures and temperatures.
A system is composed of particles, whose average motions define its properties, and those properties are in turn related to one another through equations of state. Properties can be combined to express internal energy and thermodynamic potentials , which are useful for determining conditions for equilibrium and spontaneous processes .
An intensive property does not depend on the size or extent of the system, nor on the amount of matter in the object, while an extensive property shows an additive relationship. These classifications are in general only valid in cases when smaller subdivisions of the sample do not interact in some physical or chemical process when combined.
A material property is an intensive property of a material, i.e., a physical property or chemical property that does not depend on the amount of the material. These quantitative properties may be used as a metric by which the benefits of one material versus another can be compared, thereby aiding in materials selection.
An extrinsic property is not essential or inherent to the subject that is being characterized. For example, mass is an intrinsic property of any physical object , whereas weight is an extrinsic property that depends on the strength of the gravitational field in which the object is placed.