Homogeneous and heterogeneous mixtures settle, or separate. As a homogeneous mixture, a solution has one phase (liquid) although the solute and solvent can vary: for example, salt water. Air can be more specifically described as a gaseous solution (oxygen and other gases dissolved in the major component, nitrogen). Since interactions between molecules play almost no role, dilute gases form rather trivial solutions. In part of the literature, they are not even classified as solutions. In gas intermolecular space is greatest and intermolecular force of attraction is least. In chemistry, a mixture is a substance containing two or more elements or compounds that are not
Chemistry: A Volatile History magnifying glass he managed to ignite a diamond sufficiently for it to produce a gas, which he collected and was able to identify as carbon dioxide. Having started with only diamond and oxygen, and produced a gas which contains only carbon and oxygen, Tennant had discovered that diamonds are made of carbon. Unaware of atomic theory at the time, scientists were unable to explain how carbon, already known to exist as one of the softest substances in the form of graphite, could also be the sole constituent element of the hardest known substance: diamond. Exactly 50 years later, a young