Element,compound or mixture?

Question

suppose you are given a solid sample.how would you find out if the sample is an element,compound or mixture?

Answer 1

This is a pretty broad question, and what you would find is that there is a broad array of possible tests that could be run on your sample.  Some of these are easy quick and can be done with simple means.  Other tests are complex, expensive and time consuming.

With unlimited funds, I would file some of the metal and then place the filings in a mass spectrometer where the metal would be vaporized and ionized and then a sweep of the instrument would detect peaks for the metal or metals in the sample.