Most of the materials we see and use every day are mixtures. Mixtures are produced when elements are combined but a chemical reaction does not take place. Common mixtures include everything from salad dressing to soap to the air we breathe.

Examples of Mixtures

Salad

Cereal

CC BY 2.0, Leon Brocard from London, UK

Olive oil and balsamic vinegar

In this lesson, you will learn:

the differences between mechanical mixtures and solutions
how to identify the solute and solvent in a solution
how to separate solutions and mechanical mixtures
how to communicate the concentration of a solution
why some substances are soluble and others are not
how temperature affects solubility

Key terms for this lesson:
mechanical mixture
heterogeneous mixture
homogeneous mixture
solution
solute
solvent
concentration
solubility