What I can do!

Separating iron fillings and salt place in one container

Introduction:
Separating iron filings, salt and is one of the most interesting experiments that can be undertaken by students investigating the
principles of separation of materials.
In this topic, you will be taken through the experiment.

Materials:
Salt, iron filings, magnet

Procedure:
1. Wrap a magnet in plastic lunch wrap and move it through the mixture of the three solids. The iron
filings will stick to the magnet. The filings can be removed by unwrapping the plastic from the
magnet carefully!
2. Mix the remaining salt in water and stir. Make sure you have used enough water to dissolve all of
the salt, but not too much that handling large quantities of salt water becomes a problem.
3. Collect all the salt water in a weighed container and evaporate off the water. This may take some
time in the Sun or may be sped up in an oven.

Questions:
1. Are you successful in your own procedure? If you are going to perform the separation again, will you
change your procedure? Why?

Yes, my own procedure is successful so that I will not change it.

2. How would you know that properties of matter help separate unknown substances? How would it
help?
In this experiment, the two constituent materials in the mixture are solids with significantly different physical properties,
which makes separation easier.

3. What are the properties you used in separating the substances?

I use magnetic separation and sublimation process.