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The difference between an element and compound can be understood with the help of the following example. Let us consider Hydrogen and Oxygen. Hydrogen is naturally found as H2. The symbol of hydrogen is H. Now, H2 is one molecule of hydrogen. H is the element.Similarly O2 is a molecule. O is the element called oxygen.

When you have combine hydrogen and oxygen in a chemical reaction, we get one molecule of the compound which is H2O or water.

As the name suggests compound; as in mathematics is some sort of an addition. In this case two elements are combining. In some cases you can have multiple elements combining to form a compound. Eg. Carbon, hydrogen and Oxygen can form hydrocarbons such as CH3OH C2H5OH etc.

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15y ago

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