is air a solution?

The short answer is: Yes, air is a solution.

air 係 mixture,亦係solution, 兩樣都係。

Long answer:

The easiest way to think about mixture and solutions is:

Mixture - when you mix 2 or more things together, you have a mixture.

For example: If you mix green papers with white papers, you have a mixture of green and white papers. You can tell them apart and can easily separate them . They're a mixture but not a solution.

Solution - solution is also a mixture but you cannot easily separate them apart.

For example: You put sugar into your coffee. The sugar now becomes a mixture with your coffee. They're a mixture and a solution because they've now become a same (homogeneous) mixture and you cannot separate them easily.

In solution, there is always a solute (the one with less quantity in the solution) and a solvent (the one with more quantity in the solution).

So, air has mostly Nitrogen and it's mixed with many different gases like Oxygen, CO2, etc and this mixture of gases cannot be easily separated. They're a homogeneous mixture. That makes air a solution.

The nitrogen is the solvent (the one with the most quantity in the solution) and oxygen and other gases are the solute (the ones with the lesser quantity in the solution).

溶液(solution)是由两种以上物质组成的均匀、稳定的分散体系，被分散的物质（溶质）以分子或更小的质点分散于另一物质（溶剂）中。溶液是混合物。物质在常温时有固体、液体和气体三种状态。因此溶液也有三种状态，大气本身就是一种气体溶液，固体溶液混合物常称固溶体，如合金。一般溶液只是专指液体溶液。液体溶液包括两种，即能够导电的电解质溶液和不能导电的非电解质溶液。所谓胶体溶液，更确切的说应称为溶胶。



2009-03-14 10:09:33 補充：
Just to be clear:

The short answer is: Yes, air is a solution and also a mixture.

哦~
原來重點係睇can it be easily separate apart 來分辨solution
thank you!

Mixture 是不同種類的物質(可以是氣體或是液體)混合mix在一起，而solution是有solute dissolve在一種liquid裡面

糖或鹽是solute，dissolve在liquid裡，這是solution

但空氣是不同的氣體mix在一起，是mixture
正如town gas是mixture
若果將糖水溝鹽水，出來的也是mixture