Why is Knowledge of Composition Important? everything in nature is either chemically or physically combined with other substances to know the amount of a material in a sample, you need to know what fraction of the sample it is Some Applications: the amount of sodium in sodium chloride for diet the amount of iron in iron ore for steel production the amount of hydrogen in water for hydrogen fuel the amount of chlorine in freon to estimate ozone depletion . How much salt is in this salt packet? Image used wtih permission (CC-BY-SA; 3.0; Swilliams ).