In chemistry, an ideal solution or ideal mixture is a solution with thermodynamic properties analogous to those of a mixture of ideal gases. The enthalpy of solution (or "enthalpy of mixing") is zero as is the volume change on mixing; the closer to zero the enthalpy of solution is, the more "ideal" the behavior of the solution becomes. The vapour pressure of the solution obeys Raoult's law, and the activity coefficients (which measure deviation from ideality) are equal to one.
The concept of an ideal solution is fundamental to chemical thermodynamics and its applications, such as the use of colligative properties.
Read more about Ideal Solution: Physical Origin, Formal Definition, Consequences, Non-ideality
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“There is no dream of love, however ideal it may be, which does not end up with a fat, greedy baby hanging from the breast.”
—Charles Baudelaire (18211867)
“The truth of the thoughts that are here set forth seems to me unassailable and definitive. I therefore believe myself to have found, on all essential points, the final solution of the problems. And if I am not mistaken in this belief, then the second thing in which the value of this work consists is that it shows how little is achieved when these problems are solved.”
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (18891951)