Extensive and Intensive Properties, and State Functions

[KatarinaReid_3H]

What is the difference between and what are the extensive and intensive properties? Also, what does it mean to be a state function?

[Q Scarborough 1b]

Intensive properties and extensive properties are types of physical properties of something. Intensive properties do not depend on the amount of matter that is present, such as color, boiling point, density, hardness, etc. Extensive properties do depend on the amount of matter that is present, such as volume, mass, size, length, etc. As for a state function, that is a property whose value does not depend on the path taken to reach that specific value. Lavelle's example for this was two groups climbing to a spot on a mountain. One group went over a hill and took a longer path, and the second group went straight to the spot. However, in the end they both ended up in the same spot. That is an example of a state function as it does not matter how you got there.

[Jessica Katz]

Intensive properties are not dependent on how much material or amount of stuff that is involved, like density. No matter the amount of solid or a change in matter, the density will always remain the same. I remember this as an intensive property is so "intense" that it stretches to all sizes and amounts of substance. Extensive properties are dependent on the amount of matter and changes as matter changes like volume or concentration. A state function is something that doesn't depend on the path taken from start to finish and only the initial and final states matter.

[Michelle Nguyen 3F]

Extensive properties are those that depends on the amount of substance, such as mass and volume.

Intensive properties are those that do not depend on how much material is present, such as temperature and specific heat capacity.

State functions are properties of a substance that is independent of how the same is prepared, such as enthalpy and entropy.

[Chinmayi Mutyala 3H]

An extensive property is a property that changes with the size of the sample. Heat capacity is an extensive property because if you have more of the sample, it will take more heat to change the temperature. An intensive property is a property that doesn't change with the size of the sample. Specific heat is an intensive property because it takes into account the mass of the sample so it stays the same even if the mass changes.