24 Intensive & Extensive Variables

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you should be able to:

Apply the definitions of intensive and extensive properties to process variables

Classifying Process Variables

Extensive Variables – depend on the size of a system

Intensive Variables – do not depend on the size of a system

Are temperature, pressure, and volume extensive or intensive?

Temperature: intensive

Pressure: intensive

Volume: extensive. Instead we may use molar volume if we want to express volume as an intensive property. Molar volume is defined by the volume occupied by 1 mole of the substance inside the system: [latex]\hat V=\frac{V}{n}[/latex].

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Foundations of Chemical and Biological Engineering I Copyright © 2020 by Jonathan Verrett is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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