Question

How will you separate the components of a mixture comprising common salt, iron fillings and sand?

Answer 1

Separation of the components of a mixture comprising common salt, iron fillings and sand:

Step 1: Separation of iron fillings from the rest of the mixture:

• Iron is a magnetic component, while the other components of the mixture are non-magnetic.
• Hence, iron fillings can be separated by magnetic separation.
• If a bar magnet is brought near the mixture and run over it a few times, all the iron fillings will get attached to the magnet and thus they can be separated out.

Step 2: Separation of sand from salt:

• Among sand and salt, salt is soluble in water while sand is not.
• Hence, sand and salt can be separated by dissolution in water, followed by filtration.
• The mixture of sand and salt is added to water in a beaker and stirred well. After some time, salt dissolves but sand does not.
• The solution is now poured through a funnel, covered with filter paper into another beaker.
• The sand remains in the filter paper and salt solution is collected in the other beaker.

Step 3: Obtaining salt from salt solution:

• This can be done by simply boiling the solution.
• When the mixture is boiled, water vaporises and salt is left behind in the beaker.
• If we also want to collect the water, then the process of distillation can be used, where water vapour will be condensed back to water.