Sample Mixtures, Solutions, and Compounds Worksheet
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Mixtures, Solutions, and Compounds
By Sharon Fabian 		  
1     You have probably already heard of elements. Elements are the basic materials that everything on earth is made of, and there are just over one hundred of them. Some of our everyday things are elements. There are copper pennies, iron nails, and neon lights. But most of the things we see each day are not just one element; most of them are combinations. The three main kinds of combinations are mixtures, solutions, and compounds.
 
2     Soil is a mixture. A shovelful of soil might contain some top soil, some clay, maybe a little sand, a few bugs, maybe some really tiny microorganisms, maybe a worm, maybe some rotting plant roots, and maybe some more things. Soil is a mixture. Each shovelful of soil is probably a little different from the next one. Maybe one has more sand, and the other has more clay. Maybe one shovelful has two worms! Soil can be separated into its different parts. You can take the worm and the bugs out. You can sift out the sand, or scoop out the clay. These are some characteristics of a mixture: a mixture is not the same from one sample to the next, and a mixture can be separated into its parts.
 
3     Salt water is a solution. A glassful of salt water contains both salt and water. The salt is dissolved evenly throughout the water, so that one spoonful of the salt water would contain the same amounts of salt and water as another spoonful of the salt water. Salt water can be separated into its parts. You can let the water evaporate, and you will have just the salt left. Salt water is a solution because it has these two characteristics: it has the same concentration of each of its parts throughout the solution, and it can be separated by some physical process.

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