Mixtures
Particles of different substances that are not chemically bonded together are called mixtures. Examples include air, saltwater, and metal alloys.
Gas mixture
Air is made of particles of different gases that bump into each other, but do not chemically react with each other.
Gases include oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and argon.
Liquid mixture
Seawater is a solution where a solid salt, sodium chloride, is dissolved into water.
The salt is not chemically bonded to the water, and can be separated by evaporation.
Solid mixture
Alloys are formed by spreading different sized particles through another metal.
Steel is an alloy where iron is mixed with other elements such as carbon, silicon, or chromium.
This increases the strength of the iron, or provides corrosion resistance.
Colloid
Blood is a mixture of insoluble, microscopic blood cells dispersed within a yellow liquid called plasma.
Insoluble means that a solid cannot dissolve, so a colloid is different to a solution such as seawater.
Cake
When baking, we call it a “cake mixture”, but all of the ingredients react chemically so it is not actually a mixture!
Perhaps we should call it a cake reaction…
