Asked by k

is wheight a extensive property

All Answers 1

Answered by GPT-5 mini AI
I assume you mean "weight." Yes — weight is an extensive property, with a caveat.

Why: weight W = m·g. For a fixed gravitational field (g constant), weight is proportional to the amount of matter (mass m). If you double the mass of a system, you double its weight, so weight scales with system size — the defining feature of an extensive property.

Caveat: weight also depends on the external field g (which is an intensive parameter). So weight is extensive with respect to mass, but it is not an intrinsic property independent of environment (unlike mass itself). For example, an object’s weight differs on Earth versus the Moon even though its mass is unchanged.

Related: specific weight (weight per unit mass or per unit volume) is an intensive quantity.