I am looking for the precise definitions, as I am very confused as to what they are exactly because although I mostly understand what they mean, I have encountered some conflicting definitions that confused me.
As it stands, this is what I understand them to mean:
- Compound: two or more different atoms bonded together.
- Mixture: two or more different atoms together but not joined.
- Molecule: two particles (same or different) bonded together.
- Element: only 1 type of atom; this definition is applied to things both bonded and not to itself.
I don't know whether these terms apply microscopically, macroscopically, or both. For example, I think 1 $\ce{H2O}$ molecule is a compound but is a bathtub of them called a mixture (as it contains more than 1 atom type), a compound, or both? That is, to be a compound, do all the atoms in the compound have to be bonded physically together? Generally, to what extent can these four terms overlap?
I would very much like a systematic way of thinking about these terms.
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