 In the study of thermodynamic systems the extensive quantities such as energy, volume, or entropy (versus intensive quantities of temperature and pressure) are placed on a unit mass basis, and so too are the calculations, making those more general and therefore of more general use.Hence, each term involving an extensive quantity could be divided by the mass, giving the terms units of joules/kg (specific energy), meters3/kg (specific volume), or joules/(kelvin·kg) (specific entropy, heat capacity) etc.and would be represented using lower case letters, u, v, s, etc.