Question

Is suspension a heterogeneous mixture or homogeneous mixture?

Please explain in a grade 11 level. Thank you.

Answer 1

Mixtures can be either homogeneous or heterogeneous.

When you think of a homogeneous mixture, you want to note that the prefix "homo" means "same" or even uniform.
Some examples are air, blood and salt water where you can't physically see the different particles in it right? :) Everything is even or the same looking.

Heterogeneous mixtures are the opposite. "hetero" means "different" essentially.
So when we think of heterogeneous mixtures, we should think of substances that aren't evenly distributed.
For example, think of chocolate chip cookies (we can see the cookie part and the chocolate chips) , pizza (we can see the different toppings) and sand in water (you can see the sand and the water separately once the sand has settled) .

The proper definition of a suspension is that it is a mixture of solid particles and liquid where the particle does not dissolve. So when you think of a suspension, you can use the example of sand in water.

If you mixed a cup of sand and water, the sand will disperse throughout the water. We call this "suspension". BUT if you leave the cup of sand and water to stand/ if you leave it alone, you should be able to see that the sand will settle on the bottom of the cup.
A key characteristic of a suspension is that the solid particles will settle and separate over time if left alone.

I hope this helped you ^_^ ~

Answer 2

Thank you for your help! :)

Answer 3

you're welcomeee~ :))