What is a chair?

Question

Is it a mixture or pure substance? mixture - 2 or more substances that are mixed together but not chemically combined. pure substance- made of only one kind of matter and has definite properties (pure substances consiste of compounds and elements) -compounds are pure substances formed from chemical combinations of two or more different elements. -elements are pure substances that can't be broken down into other substances by any chemical means.

Answer 1

Peter K is right in that there are structures in chemistry refered to be the shape 'chair' (technically 'armchair'). A good example of this is in carbon nanotubes, here are three different types of stable carbon nanotubes, one of which is the armchair structure.

I think you might be getting confused about matter in general. You imply that there are only two different kinds of matter: a mixture or a pure substance.

I can only speak from the realm of physics, but I can tell you we never refer to anything as a pure substance, and I have only ever seen 'mixture' refered to as a loose term, not a technical specification.

When looking at your chair you can not consider it to be a single 'lump' of material like you could a plastic bottle. The reason is that, whilst the plastic bottle is made out of many different chemicals, the chemicals form long polymer chains that become interwoven in some sence. In this way, the plastic substance in the bottle can posess properties of its own. Now, the chair isn't as simple, because the 'structure' of the wood is quite different. Yes, it contains many different molecules of different shapes BUT, unlike the plastic bottle, recreating a wooden chair with identical properties is all but impossible. This is because there will be volumes in the wood which have a higher carbon content, areas with a lower carbon content, areas with higher water content, areas with lower water content etc etc. The properties of the wood are not constant by any standard. Remember that, unlike plastic, the substance of the wood is generally untreated and comes from a tree 'as-is' (with cellular structure et al), whereas the plastic has been treated under high pressure and heat until the original substance became crude oil (losing its cellular structure), then it heated up and evaporated in a fractional distillation tower to extract the chemicals required (again, destroying an natural 'order' to the substance). Finally, it is cooled down into a lump of plastic. The plastic, whilst having a structure, contains nothing like the organic structures in the wood.

I suppose your definintion might hold true in some way, but in the same way you could have a potato chip on a fork and say 'the chip is a mixture, the fork is a pure substance'. This makes no sence, because the fork will likely be stainless-steel, which is FAR from pure!

I guess I'm trying to say that you can't call a house a brick. A house is made of many different parts (windows, doors, roof etc), but you wouldn't give the thermal insulation properties of 'a house' because it would make no sence. No, you would say that the windows insulate such an amount, and the roof insulates such an amount, etc. You might say how much heat can escape the house overall, but this isn't a property of the house because the house next door may be made from the same parts (put together in a different order, maybe the roof is on the floor) and release a lot more heat.

Do you see what I mean? I don't think it's correct or appropriate to assign physical properties to a structure (you call a mixture).

And that's all I have to say about that.

Answer 2

The fact that most people call it a chair! but if you want we can open a new web site and send messages to people all over the world not to call it a chair anymore. we could even ask the goverment to step in saying that the word chair is very rude and it would be politcally incorrect to use that word ever again. But i can guarentee that someone somewhere would still call it a chair. Thats what makes it a chair!!!

Answer 3

Elements mixed mechanically make a mixture
Elements reacted together chemically make compounds.
No such state as "chair".

In chemistry, chair refers to a molecule shape.
For example, cyclohexane has two shapes called conformers. Same chemical, different shape. In this case shapes are referred to as "boat" and "chair".

Answer 4

Is a thing that you sit upon but could not bring with you.

Answer 5

No, it's the thing you're sitting on.

Answer 6

you're starting to scare me, lady.