Practice Mixture Separation in Chemistry

Use these practice problems to test your method after reviewing the concept explanation and worked examples.

Quick Recap

Physical methods used to isolate the components of a mixture by exploiting differences in their physical properties.

Different substances have different properties — use those differences to pull them apart. Heavy things sink, liquids evaporate at different temperatures.

Example 1

easy
List four common methods for separating mixtures and give an example of when each would be used.

Example 2

medium
Describe a step-by-step procedure to separate a mixture of sand, salt, and iron filings. Identify the physical property exploited at each step.

Example 3

medium
Why can filtration separate sand from water but not salt from water? What technique should be used instead for salt water?

Example 4

hard
Crude oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons with different boiling points. Explain how fractional distillation is used to separate crude oil into useful fractions, and name three fractions obtained.
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