Is the humidity in the atmosphere intensive or extensive property?

Answer 1

An intensive property (also called a bulk property), is a physical property of a system that does not depend on the system size or the amount of material in the system. An extensive property of a system is directly proportional to the system size or the amount of material in the system. Since humidity is a measure of the composition of the atmosphere - specifically the amount of water vapor, it would be considered INTENSIVE. The only way it could be considered EXTENSIVE would be if you were to consider the earth a closed system and you were interested in how much of the water was in the oceans, lakes, rivers snowpack, ground, air, Evian bottles etc. In that case, the humidity would vary with the size of the system - the value would depend on whether you were taking a sample in a closed room or taking the entire air mass over the Pacific Ocean. Even then, the average value would still be an intensive property.

Answer 2

Humidity in the atmosphere is an intensive property because it is independent of the amount of air present. It is related to the air's temperature and pressure at a specific point in space.

Answer 3

extensive