3.2 Separating Mechanical Mixtures
Check Your Understanding
1. Methods of
separating the parts of a mechanical mixture include:
1. Sorting
2. Floating
3. Settling
4. Using
a magnet
5. Using
sieves & filters
6. Dissolving
7. Evaporation
can be used to separate salt from salty water
8. Chromatography
is used to separate the colors out of black ink
9. Distillation
is used to get pure water from sea water
2a. Metals in a scrap yard can be separated by sorting
and using a magnet.
2b. Paper clips can be separated from sand using a magnet
or a sieve.
2c. Gravel can be separated from water using a sieve.
3. Examples of
mixtures
·
Floating/Settling i.e. skimming fat from boiling
chicken to make a broth; cleaning a swimming pool skimming floating
insects/leafs; decanting wine from sediments at bottom of wine bottle.
·
Magnet i.e. searching for coins in sand
·
Sieving i.e. straining boiled food (peas,
corn, beans, pasta etc)
·
Filtration i.e. purifying water in city
treatment plant, making coffee/tea, separating sand from water
·
Dissolving i.e. using sugar, salt, butter,
honey in cooking
4.
·
picking veggies off a pizza (sorting)
·
organizing cutlery, laundry (sorting)
Separating mixture of snacking foods in bowl (chips,
crackers, preztels, cheese sticks etc)
Sorting would work because of the fairly large,
identifiable pieces;
Nothing is really floating to the top or settling at
the bottom;
Magnet would not attract anything;
Sieving with a colander, filtering with a small mesh
colander wouldn’t work because of the large pieces; nothing would really pass
through the holes whether large or fine.
