Note 18 — Chapter V · SOLUTIONS AND ELECTROLYTIC DISSOCIATION
Reading edition
Dissociation must be distinguished from decomposition, which is what occurs when the whole of a particle (compound, molecule, atom, etc.) breaks up into its component parts. In dissociation the breaking up is only partial, and the resultant consists of a mixture of decomposed and undecomposed parts. See Ganot's Physics, 17th English edition, § 395, for examples.—ED.