Lab: Separating a Mixture
Problem: How can we separate a well-blended mixture into its component parts?
Materials: Graduate, cylinder, funnel, mesh filter, hot plate, magnet, tongs, sand, salt, iron filing,
BBs, coffee filter, scale.
Hypothesis: If we sift out the BBs with the filter, pull the iron filings out with the magnet, use
water to pull out the salt, remove the sand with the coffee filter, and boil away the water, then all
the different sections of the mixture will be removed because we need to find the mass of each
component.
Procedure:
1 Place mesh filter over cylinder
2 Pour mixture through filter
3 Remove BB’s from mixture
4 Stir mixture with magnet
5 Remove iron filings from magnet
6 Place coffee filter in funnel
7 Pour mixture into coffee filter
8 Pour water into coffee filter
9 Repeat step 8 until all salt is removed from mixture
10 Turn on hot plate to the highest setting
11 Boil water away from salt-water mixture
12 Weigh each component of mixture
13 Clean up lab
Data:
Salt
17.2g
Sand
42.3g
Mass of components
BBs
Iron Filings
1.5g
4.3g
Total Mass
65.3
Mass vs Object
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Salt
Sand
BBs
iron filings
total
Conclusions:
1 Which methods were successful in separating your mixture? Explain.
Fortunately, all of my methods for separating a mixture worked perfectly.
2 Which methods were unsuccessful in separating your mixture? Explain.
Fortunately, none of my methods failed.
3 Application: What instances in everyday life might require you to separate a mixture?
A good reason for separating a mixture would be panning for gold in the mountains.
4 Application: What instances in the job industry might require you to separate a mixture?
A good example of industrially separating a mixture would be scientist extracting
hydrogen for a form of energy.