Elements
An element is made up of its own atom, they cannot be broken down into other substances, and
neither can they be broken down by any known chemical process (Waldron, 2007). There are two
main types of elements: metals and non-metals. The periodic table states all the known 118 elements
and groups together those with similar properties.
Metals: are usually hard and shiny, and difficult to melt, they are good conductors of heat and
electricity.
Non metals: are usually gases, or solids which melt easily, the solids are often powdery and brittle.
Some examples of elements are Oxygen (O), Carbon (C), Gold (Au).
Compounds
When the atoms of two or more elements react together they bond together chemically making a new
chemical known as a compound (Fullick and Fullick, 2001). It is impossible to separate compounds
physically or mechanically, even chemically they are difficult to separate as properties of compounds
are completely different to the properties of the elements they’re from (Moor, 2011). Compounds
have fixed melting and boiling point.
Examples of compounds are water (H2O), Carbon dioxide (CO2), Carbon Monoxide (CO).
Mixtures
Physical combination of elements or compounds, unlike compounds, mixtures can be easily separated
with physical methods such as evaporation, filtration, distilling (Moor, 2011) e.g. if sand and salt were
mixed, they could easily be separated by dissolving the salt with water and filtering it out to be left
with pure sand.
Other examples of mixtures are: tea, salads, perfume, beach sand.
An element is made up of its own atom, they cannot be broken down into other substances, and
neither can they be broken down by any known chemical process (Waldron, 2007). There are two
main types of elements: metals and non-metals. The periodic table states all the known 118 elements
and groups together those with similar properties.
Metals: are usually hard and shiny, and difficult to melt, they are good conductors of heat and
electricity.
Non metals: are usually gases, or solids which melt easily, the solids are often powdery and brittle.
Some examples of elements are Oxygen (O), Carbon (C), Gold (Au).
Compounds
When the atoms of two or more elements react together they bond together chemically making a new
chemical known as a compound (Fullick and Fullick, 2001). It is impossible to separate compounds
physically or mechanically, even chemically they are difficult to separate as properties of compounds
are completely different to the properties of the elements they’re from (Moor, 2011). Compounds
have fixed melting and boiling point.
Examples of compounds are water (H2O), Carbon dioxide (CO2), Carbon Monoxide (CO).
Mixtures
Physical combination of elements or compounds, unlike compounds, mixtures can be easily separated
with physical methods such as evaporation, filtration, distilling (Moor, 2011) e.g. if sand and salt were
mixed, they could easily be separated by dissolving the salt with water and filtering it out to be left
with pure sand.
Other examples of mixtures are: tea, salads, perfume, beach sand.
