Which term describes a combination of two or more substances that are not chemically combined?

• A. Pure substance
• B. Mixture
• C. Element
• D. Solution

Answer: (B)

When two or more substances are combined without forming new chemical bonds, you get a mixture. In a mixture, each component keeps its own properties, and the substances can still be separated by physical means, like filtering, sorting, or evaporating a liquid to leave the solid behind. This distinguishes mixtures from pure substances, which are either elements (one kind of atom) or compounds (different atoms bonded together). A solution is a specific type of mixture where the components are distributed uniformly at the molecular level, such as salt dissolved in water. So, the general term that describes any non-chemically-bonded combination of substances is mixture.