Question

Is air a mixture or a compound? Give three reasons for your answer.

Answer 1

Hint:To answer this question, you should recall that the earth is surrounded by a blanket of air known as atmosphere. It contains nitrogen, oxygen and other gases.

Complete step by step answer:
Air is considered as mixture for the following reasons:
1. Air can be separated into its components like nitrogen, oxygen, argon and carbon dioxide by the process of fractional distillation of liquid air.
2. Air shows the properties of all the gases present in the atmosphere.
For example: Oxygen is a good Supporter of combustion. Hence air also is a good supporter of combustion.
3. Air does not have a fixed formula.
4. Air has a variable composition because air at different places contains different amounts of gases.
5. Heat or Light energy is neither absorbed nor released when air is prepared physically by mixing the required amount of gases.
6. Mixture does have a fixed boiling Point. It holds good in case of liquid air.

Note:
You should know that there are certain properties of gases like any other matter. Some common properties are as follows:
Materials can be classified into three types: elements, compounds and mixture. Elements are substances that are made from a single type of atom. An element cannot be broken down into any other substance. These act as basic building blocks and everything in the universe is made from these. Examples include carbon, sulfur, oxygen, iron, copper, aluminium. Elements are generally denoted by their symbols. A mixture is formed through simply mixing of elements or compounds. No new chemical bonds are formed. Mixtures can be separated using physical techniques for example filtration, chromatography, evaporation, magnetisation, flotation and distillation.