PROPERTIES OF SYSTEMS

A property of a system is a characteristic of the system which depends upon its state, but not upon how the state is reached. There are two sorts of property :

1. Intensive properties

These properties do not depend on the mass of the system.

Examples : Temperature and pressure.

2. Extensive properties

These properties depend on the mass of the system.

Example :Volume.

Extensive properties are often divided by mass associated with them to obtain the intensive properties.

For example, if the volume of a system of mass m is V, then the specific volume of matter within the system is V /m = v which is an intensive property.