How would you distinguish experimentally between ethanol and ethanoic acid?

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Solution

Difference between ethanol and ethanoic acid:
Ethanol does not react with metal carbonates while, ethanoic acid reacts with metal carbonates to form a salt, water and carbon dioxide. In this reaction, effervescence will be observed.
For example, $2 C H_{3} C O O H + N a_{2} C O_{3} \to 2 C H_{3} C O O N a + C O_{2} H_{2} O$
Ethanol does not react with NaOH while ethanoic acid reacts with NaOH to form sodium ethanoate and water.
For example, $C H_{3} C O O H + N a O H \to C H_{3} C O O N a + H_{2} O$
Ethanol is oxidized to give ethanoic acid in presence of acidified $K M n O_{4}$ while, no reaction takes place with ethanoic acid in presence of acidified $K M n O_{4}$ .

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