Final answer:
A mixture is a combination of two or more substances that maintain their individual properties because no chemical bonding occurs. The term 'properties' refers to the physical and chemical characteristics that remain unchanged within a mixture. Mixtures can be heterogeneous or homogeneous based on the uniformity of their composition.
Step-by-step explanation:
Understanding Mixtures and Properties
In chemistry, a mixture is defined as the combination of two or more substances where these substances retain their chemical properties because they are not chemically bonded to each other. For instance, air is a mixture of different gases, and cereal in milk is a mixture where both cereal and milk maintain their own properties. The term properties in this context refers to both the physical and chemical characteristics of a substance, indicating aspects like color, phase, melting point, boiling point, and reactivity.
A common example used to demonstrate the concept of a mixture is when sodium, a soft shiny metal, and chlorine, a pungent green gas, form sodium chloride (table salt) through a chemical reaction. The resulting compound has entirely different properties from either sodium or chlorine. If sodium chloride is mixed with ground pepper, the mixture can be separated back into its components, illustrating that mixtures maintain the properties of their individual substances. Mixtures can vary in their composition and can be either heterogeneous or homogeneous, depending on whether the composition is uniform or not.