and
Mixtures
An element is any substance that is made up of only one type of atom.
Hydrogen gas is an element.
A compound is a substance that is made from two or more different types
of atoms. Water is a compound.
A mixture is a substance that is made from two or more different compounds
or elements. Air is a mixture.
Identify the following
as a compound, element or mixture.
Each circle represents
an atom. Scan the image with the cursor for the answer and more information
The diagrams A to D on the right represent the particles in different substances. Which represent a:
- pure compound?
- mixture of a compound and an element?
- mixture of elements?
Inks used in pens and texta colours appear to be composed of a single dye particle. In actual fact, the inks used in many pens are mixtures of many different inks. We can separate the different inks into their component colours by a method called thin film chromatography.
On the right is an example
of three chromatograms.
"A" is the chromatogram of an orange coloured texta.
"B" is the chromatogram of an blue coloured texta
"C" is the
chromatogram of a black coloured texta. All inks used are pure compounds
or mixtures of compounds.
Identify which are mixtures and which are pure compounds.
Click to go to the activity on thin film chromatography.