Question

An alloy is a specific type of substance that can best be described by which of the following?
(A) An alloy is a mixture of various metals that can also contain non-metal elements.
(B) An alloy is a compound made of different types of metals.
(C) An alloy can only contain metals from the transition elements.
(D) An alloy can only contain two pure metals mixed in even quantities.

Answer 1

A mixture in which the composition of all constituents is uniform throughout is known as a homogenous mixture. Example: All solutions will be homogeneous as they have uniformly dissolved material throughout the solution. An alloy is a homogeneous mixture.

Complete Step by step solution
An alloy is a homogeneous mixture containing a combination of metals, or metals combined with more than one element and the elements can be non-metal too. An example of alloy is iron combining with non-metals like carbon and silicon produces steel and silicon steel respectively.
The result of a mixture can be different than the pure metals used, like there can be an increase in hardness or increase in strength.
Some substances may contain metal as the base but do not show any metallic properties like aluminium oxide and beryllium aluminium silicate. In some cases, a combination of metals may reduce the overall cost of the material by preserving the properties needed or important. In some cases, a combination of metals imparts properties such as corrosion resistance or mechanical strength. For example; brass, solder and bronze.
An alloy is a homogenous, solid solution of metal elements or metals with non-metals.

Therefore, the correct answer is option A that is an alloy is a mixture of various metals that can also contain non-metal elements.

Note
Intermetallic compounds are alloys with defined stoichiometry and crystal structure. They are also regarded as compounds and are classified as pure compounds.