Is specific heat an intensive or extensive property?

Answer 1

An intensive physical property does not depend on the size of the sample. An example of an intensive physical property is density. An extensive physical property does depend on the size of the sample, such as mass and volume.

Answer 2

It is something of a misconception to refer to "heat content". Strictly speaking, heat is only energy in transit from one place to another. What you are referring to as "heat content" is probably either internal energy (denoted as U in thermodynamics) or Enthalpy (denoted as H in thermodynamics).

We do sometimes refer to heat capacity (usually denoted by a capital C, often with subscripts) which is a measurable physical quantity of the amount of heat required to change an object's temperature by a given amount. In International Units, "heat capacity" is expressed in units of joules per kelvin. The heat capacity is related to the "specific heat"; specific heat is the heat capacity per unit of mass. As an example: water has a specific heat of approximately 1 calorie per gram per degree. Specific heat is an intensive property. Heat capacity is an extensive property because the more mass you have of a particular composition, the more heat it will take to change its temperature; it takes more heat to warm up a swimming pool than it would to warm up a glass of water taken from the pool. Nevertheless, both the water in the pool and the water in the glass would have the same "specific heat".

Heat capacity is related to enthalpy by the formula H/T (where T is temperature in kelvin).

Answer 3

It may help to mentally connect the word "extensive" with the word "extent". Does the property depend upon the extent of the material, i.e. how much of it there is? Then it's an extensive property. If it doesn't, then it's an intensive property. Anything you can reasonably put the word "average" in front of when talking about a single sample of "stuff" is almost certainly an intensive property.

You wouldn't talk about the "average" volume of a bottle of gas, because there's only one volume. Volume is an extrinsic property; it depends on how much "stuff" there is.

Temperature is an intensive property. It doesn't matter if you're measuring four molecules or four hundred cubic light-years of the stuff, the temperature is the temperature.

Answer 4

intensive property =)

Answer 5

Heat is an extensive property. Temperature is intensive.

Answer 6

The temperature is an intensive physical property.

Answer 7

Intensive.

Answer 8

extensive