Any substance can be classified as either an element or a compound or a mixture. An element is the pure form of a substance and contains only identical atoms. An example of an element is gold. It consists of identical atoms of gold and all the atoms have the same properties. When two or more elements combine, in a certain fixed ratio, they form a compound. For example, water (H2O) is a compound and consists of hydrogen and oxygen atoms in a fixed 2:1 ratio. Both oxygen and hydrogen are individual elements. Interesting aspect of the compound is that constituent elements no longer have their properties. For example, water is used for extinguishing, while oxygen is necessary for starting fire and hydrogen is a fuel.
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