components

The components of a mixture are the individual substances that were combined to make it — each one keeps its own identity throughout.

• Because components don't react chemically, every one of them is technically still present and could, in principle, be picked back out.
• In a non-uniform mixture, like a sprout salad, the components stay visible enough to sort by hand; in a uniform one, like sugar water, they blend so thoroughly that no eye or microscope can tell them apart.
• Even something as ordinary as air has components — mainly nitrogen and oxygen, plus smaller amounts of other gases — mixed so evenly that they can only be separated by special industrial processes, not by looking.
• Knowing a mixture's components is the first step to separating it: pick a method that exploits a difference between them, like size, magnetism, or boiling point.