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To understand, you first need to understand the difference between an element and a compound. An element is any element from the Periodic Table. For example, oxygen. A compound is a substance in which more than one element are bonded chemically. This is not to be confused with a mixture, which is simple a mixture of substances with no chemical bonding. An example of a compound would be water, consisting of hydrogen and oxygen bonded together.

Now that we've established to difference between an element and a compound, we can explore what the smallest particle of each is. The "smallest particle" is the smallest you can go while still keeping the properties of the original substance.

The smallest particle of an element would be an atom. But when dealing with compounds, if you break them down to atoms, then those atoms don't have the same properties as a compound. The smallest particle of a compound is a molecule. In our example of water, a water molecule consists of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, chemically bonded together. The molecule, consisting of three atoms, has the chemical properties of water. But if you break it down so you just have an oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms, none of them would have the properties of the original compound (water).

Thus, the smallest particle of an element is an atom, and the smallest particle of a compound is a molecule. The difference between the two is that an atom is an atom, and a molecule is two or more atoms chemically bonded.

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Q: What is the difference between smallest particle of element and smallest particle of compound?
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