Classification Scheme

The first thing in this lesson is to try to identify just what a solution is and put it in the context of some other things we have studied. Let's go back to the classification scheme that we dealt with months ago. (There is also a diagram of it in example 1 in your workbook.) Solutions are right in the middle of the diagram. They are neither heterogeneous nor pure.

Classification flow chart. [1flowch5.gif]

Solutions are homogeneous mixtures. Note that I did not say homogeneous liquid mixture. A solution can be a solid, a liquid or a gas. Air, for example, is a gaseous solution (or a homogeneous mixture) of different gases. Metal alloys are examples solutions of solid materials. Some minerals are solid solutions.

We will be dealing mostly with liquid solutions although many of the things that are dissolved in these liquid solutions may have been solids before they were dissolved. Actually we will be dealing primarily with aqueous solutions, things dissolved in water.

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E-mail instructor: Eden Francis

Clackamas Community College
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