AFOQT Practice Test

In chemistry, what term refers to two or more substances that are not chemically bonded?

1. Compound

2. Solution

3. Mixture

4. Element

The correct answer is: Mixture

The term that refers to two or more substances that are not chemically bonded is indeed a mixture. Mixtures can consist of solid, liquid, or gas substances that are physically combined but not chemically altered. This means that the individual components retain their own properties and can often be separated by physical means, such as filtration or evaporation. For example, if you combine sand and salt, you create a mixture where both the sand and salt retain their individual characteristics, and you can easily separate them. This distinguishes mixtures from compounds, where the elements are chemically bonded and only exhibit properties of the compound itself. Similarly, solutions are homogeneous mixtures but do not specifically refer to substances that remain distinctly separate; all components are uniformly distributed. Elements refer to pure substances that consist of only one type of atom and are found on the periodic table, not a combination of different substances.