What substance can not be broken down? mixture,element,or compound
by 
14craziigrl14
ANSWERS: 5
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Umm, how technical an answer are you looking for?
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any of those can be 'broken down' into a lot of parts.. so broken down how?
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elements (guessing)
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i dont know but there's definatley some shit on the inside of my mates toilet than cant be broken down!
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Well really you can break down any of them. But this seems to be chemistry question so the answer will be element. Here's why: A compound is a chemical formed either by covalent or ionic bonding (keeping it simple for now). You can break a compound down into its constituent elements via a variety of chemical processes. A mixture of a mix of different chemicals that have not reacted chemically. Coffee (drink) is a mixture, not a compound whereas salt is a compound. You could get the constituent parts of coffee by, say, filtration or evaporation etc but this won't work for a compound or element. An element cannot be broken by chemical means. You can break down elements e.g. nuclear fission 'breaks' a atomic nucleus into other elements. But it cannot be done by simple chemical means. It is all a touch more complex than that but that's the general gist. EDIT Think element = elementary i.e. the simplest form. Compound is to add together (e.g. to compound a problem) and mixture is when you mix two or more things together.
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