MCQ Detailed View

Properties of matter are classified into intensive and extensive properties based on whether they depend on the amount of substance. Extensive properties change with the size or mass of the system. Examples include mass, volume, and total energy. Doubling the mass of a substance doubles its extensive properties.

Intensive properties, however, do not depend on the amount of substance. These properties remain the same whether we have a small sample or a large sample. Common examples include density, temperature, boiling point, melting point, and refractive index. Intensive properties are important for identifying substances because they are independent of quantity.

Colligative properties are a special case. They depend on the number of solute particles in a solution, not on their type, but they are still influenced by the amount of solute and solvent, so they are not purely intensive.

Understanding intensive and extensive properties is important in Physical Chemistry for many applications. For example, when calculating density, which is an intensive property, the mass and volume ratio remains constant regardless of sample size. Intensive properties are used to compare substances and predict behavior in chemical reactions and physical processes.

This distinction helps students analyze physical changes, thermodynamic properties, and solution behaviors. Intensive properties allow chemists to determine characteristic values that define materials, while extensive properties help calculate totals and understand system scaling.

In this question, the correct choice is intensive properties, because they are independent of the mass of the substance and remain consistent across all sample sizes.