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Ammonia is a colourless gas that is used to make fertilisers, cleaners and medicines. A chemist heats up some pure ammonia to very high temperature and finds that it breaks down into two other gases.Explain whether ammonia is an element or not.

Question

Ammonia is a colourless gas that is used to make fertilisers, cleaners and medicines. A chemist heats up some pure ammonia to very high temperature and finds that it breaks down into two other gases.Explain whether ammonia is an element or not.

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Solution

Ammonia is not an element. Here's why:

  1. Definition: An element is a substance that cannot be broken down into any other substance. Each element is made up of its own type of atom. This is the fundamental principle of chemistry.

  2. Ammonia's Composition: Ammonia (NH3) is a compound made up of two different elements - Nitrogen (N) and Hydrogen (H). It consists of one Nitrogen atom and three Hydrogen atoms.

  3. Breakdown of Ammonia: The chemist heated the ammonia and it broke down into two other gases. This indicates that ammonia is not an element because it can be broken down into simpler substances (in this case, Nitrogen and Hydrogen gases).

So, based on the definition of an element and the behavior of ammonia when heated, we can conclude that ammonia is not an element but a compound.

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