What is the difference between iron and steel? ?

Question

What is the difference between iron and steel? ?

Answer 1

Iron is the pure element

Steel is an alloy of iron. Steel is a mixture of iron with a small impurity of carbon.

Steel is very important because it's strong and will not oxidize as quickly as iron would otherwise.

Answer 2

Iron is a chemical element. It is a strong, hard, heavy gray metal.

Steel is formed by treating molten (melted) iron with intense heat and mixing it (alloying) with carbon.

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Answer 3

First answer is partly correct.  Carbon is not an impurity in steels, it is very carefully controlled and manipulated because it is one of the most important factors that determine the physical properties of steels.  It is not true that iron corrodes more easily than steels.  It really depends.  There are thousands (hundreds and hundreds anyway) of different steel alloys.  Some corrode easily, some survive very aggressive chemical environments quite well.  Iron (Fe) can have fairly good corrosion resistance depending on how pure it is and what specific impurities are present.  Hope this helps