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Air is a mixture of gases (and not a compound), about 78% being nitrogen (an element) , about 21% oxygen (another element), and all other gases present in much lesser amounts. The remaining 1% is made up of argon (0.93%), carbon dioxide (0.039% as of 2010) and other trace gases (0.003%). Water vapor (water in its gaseous state) is also present in the atmosphere in varying amounts, by up to 2%. If you live in Florida in the summer rains, or in parts of England, or in the rain forest, humidity is high, and the air contains a large amount of water vapor. In dry air, as that found in desert regions, there is little water vapor in the air. This mixture is fairly homogeneous near the surface, and the only practical way to separate the individual gases is by cooling them to their condensation temperatures, which are extremely low. One of the easier gases to condense is carbon dioxide, which changes to solid form at about - 78.5 °C and is known as "dry ice."

These components exist in air as separate, unreactive, and unbound entities (molecules). If air was a compound, the above mentioned gases would be chemically bonded together in some sort of fixed ratios (like H20), which they're not.

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8y ago

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