How would you classify salt water as an aqueous solution?

• A. Salt water is a heterogeneous mixture.
• B. Salt water is a colloidal suspension.
• C. Salt water is a homogeneous solution.
• D. Salt water is a pure substance.

Answer: (C)

Verified step by step guidance

1. Understand the definitions of the terms involved: a heterogeneous mixture has visibly different parts or phases; a colloidal suspension contains particles that are intermediate in size and remain dispersed without settling; a homogeneous solution has uniform composition throughout; a pure substance has a fixed composition and distinct properties.
2. Recognize that salt water consists of salt (solute) dissolved uniformly in water (solvent), forming a single phase with no visible separation.
3. Since the salt dissolves completely and the mixture looks uniform at the macroscopic level, salt water does not have visibly different parts, so it is not heterogeneous.
4. The dissolved salt particles are at the ionic or molecular level, much smaller than colloidal particles, so salt water is not a colloidal suspension.
5. Therefore, salt water fits the definition of a homogeneous solution, as it is a uniform mixture of two or more substances, but it is not a pure substance because it contains more than one component.