Homogeneous Mixtures

General Chemistry Index

Where are we going with this? The point of this deck is to give the background information and examples so that we can differentiate between substances (pure and mixtures) based on physical and chemical properties.

Homogeneous Mixtures

Greek fun: Homo = same; geneious = origins

Homogeneous mixtures are combined in such a way that the molecules are not easily separated and any samples of the mixture are alike.

Homogeneous mixtures:

• The parts of the mixture are not noticeably different from one another. 
  
  
• The composition is the same throughout.
  
  
• You CANNOT easily divide out different parts.
  

Seriously? Good thing atoms and molecules got introduced elsewhere.

So, basically, if you have a bunch of stuff in in a homogeneous mixture, you'd probably be thinking it is one thing. It's soda. It's milk. It's air.

Homogeneous mixtures occur at a very small scale. (Like salt water, which will be the example.)

The substances in a homogeneous mixture are so evenly distributed that it is both hard to distinguish one substance in the mixture from another and also difficult to separate them.

The parts of the mixture are not noticeably different from one another.

Pouring salt water from one cup to another results in two cups of salt water. You can't look into a cup of salt water and say, "Oh! Look! There's some salt and look! There's some water." It is all salt water. 

The composition is the same throughout.

One drop of salt water is like any other drop. You'd have to get down to nearly a molecular scale to have a chance at seeing any difference between one sample and the other. Why? 

You CANNOT easily divide out different parts.

You can't just reach in and grab the salt from the salt water.

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Bonus information:

Salt water is a thing, a noun.

Saltwater is an adjective, such as "saltwater fish."