Mon Prof Augmenté
Separating Sand and Salt from Water
Age 12 chemistry
Water can carry sand that stays in lumps and salt that dissolves into it. Filtering traps the sand, and heating the liquid drives the water away as steam so the salt is left behind.
Step by step
- The beaker of cloudy water holding sand and dissolved salt.
- The wet sand caught in the folded filter paper inside the funnel.
- The clear salty liquid collecting in the conical flask after passing through the filter.
- The evaporating basin heated over the burner, where water leaves as steam.
- The white salt crystals left behind in the cooled second basin.
Examples
- Pouring tea through a strainer so the leaves stay behind.
- Sea salt forming in shallow salt pans as the sun dries the seawater.
Key takeaways
- Filtering separates a solid that does not dissolve from a liquid.
- Evaporation recovers a dissolved solid, because only the water turns to gas.
A quiz goes with this lesson
Three questions asked a few days later, to check the idea stuck — not that the picture was seen. In the app, with a subscription.