PURE SUBSTANCES
There are millions of kinds of PURE SUBSTANCES.
As scientists began studying substances, they found that there were certain simple substances that were in all of the materials that they studied. They called these "building blocks of matter" elements. Elements are pure substances that cannot be broken down to any simpler substance.
Compounds, as we have seen, are substances made up of two or more elements combined in specific proportions.
ex. If each letter in the alphabet is an element, then words would be compounds.
Ex. Hydrogen + Oxygen = Water (H20)
Carbon + Hydrogen + Oxygen = Alcohol
There are only about 100 elements in the universe that we know. Each of these elements has their own specific properties. Some are more common, some rare, some poisonous, some radioactive, and some explosive.
As scientists began studying substances, they found that there were certain simple substances that were in all of the materials that they studied. They called these "building blocks of matter" elements. Elements are pure substances that cannot be broken down to any simpler substance.
Compounds, as we have seen, are substances made up of two or more elements combined in specific proportions.
ex. If each letter in the alphabet is an element, then words would be compounds.
Ex. Hydrogen + Oxygen = Water (H20)
Carbon + Hydrogen + Oxygen = Alcohol