Question

While on vacation, a student found a kind of rock he had never seen before. The rock

was grey, but when he looked closer, the student saw white and black flecks in it.
Is this rock a pure substance, a mechanical mixture, or a solution? Explain your answer.

Answer 1

The rock is a mechanical mixture of different minerals, as it contains visible white and black flecks. Mechanical mixtures are combinations of different substances that can be easily separated.

Step-by-step explanation:

The rock you found is most likely a mechanical mixture. A mechanical mixture is a combination of different substances that can be easily separated. In this case, the grey rock with white and black flecks is a mixture of different minerals. The grey color is the result of the combination of these minerals, and the white and black flecks are the individual minerals.

Examples of mechanical mixtures include trail mix, salad, and granite rock. In these mixtures, you can see the different components and they can be physically separated.

In contrast, a pure substance is made up of only one type of substance. It is either an element (such as hydrogen or oxygen) or a compound (such as water or salt) and cannot be easily separated into different components.