Re: Entropy and states of matter

["RAUBER, JOEL" <JOEL_RAUBER@SDSTATE.EDU>]

David,

I'm curious.

>  If the solid is
> macroscopic in size, not only is its internal bulk energy extensive
> and approximately infinitely divisible, its facial surface energies
> are also approximately infinitely divisible over partitions of the
> faces into multiple subsets.  But the overall surface energy of the
> crystal is not an extensive quantity because the surface energy
> scales proportional to the 2/3 power of the volume of the crystal,
> rather than the 1st power as it would if it was truly extensive.

Couldn't one argue that the surface energy *is* extensive as it does scale
the same as the size of the two dimensional manifold on which it resides?
Double the surface area, you double the surface energy.

I suppose this is quibbling over the definition of "extensive" and one could
certainly argue the way you did above.

Joel R