Pure Substance

Substances which contain particles of only one kind is called a pure substance.

Mixture
Substances which contain particles of different kinds is called an impure substance
or mixture. A mixture is made up of two or more pure substances.

The pure substances which are present in a mixture are called components of the
mixture or constituents of the mixture.

The components of a mixture retain their original properties. A mixture shows the
properties of all the substances present in it.

For example : Air is a mixture of gases such as oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide
and water vapours. Air shows the properties of all its components.

Most of the things which we use in our daily day to day life are mixtures. For
example : air, water, salt, milk, tea, coffee, sugar cane juice, petroleum, soil
etc.

A mixture can be solid, liquid or gas. Soil is a solid mixture, milk is a liquid
mixture whereas air is a gaseous mixture.

The mixtures are separated into their components for various purposes such as :

(1) To remove an undesirable component

We make a cup of tea by boiling tea leaves in water and then adding sugar and milk.
Used tea leaves are an undesirable component of the mixture called tea. These are
separated by using a filter called tea strainer.

(2) To remove a harmful component

We buy wheat, rice and pulses from the market. These food grains usually contain
small pieces of stones, insects. These pieces of stone and insects are harmful to
us. So, we separate the small pieces of stones and insects from wheat, rice and
pulses before using them.

(3) To obtain the pure sample of a substance

Tap water contains some dissolved salts in it, so it is an impure substance. It

cannot be used for preparing medicines. So we separate the dissolved salt from the
tap water to obtain a pure sample of water called distilled water.

(4) To obtain a useful component

Petroleum oil is a mixture which cannot be used as a fuel in homes and vehicles
etc. We separate the petroleum mixture to obtain useful components like kerosene,
petrol and diesel. Kerosene is used as a household fuel whereas petrol and diesel
are useful as fuels in vehicles.

Methods of Separating of Mixtures

The various components of mixture have different physical properties such as
hardness, density, solubility, size of particle, behaviour towards magnet,
volatility, boiling point etc.

This difference in the physical properties of components is used to separate them

from a mixture. when we want to separate the components of a mixture, we should
first find out some properties which would be different for different components.

The basis for choosing method of separating the components of a mixture is the
difference in physical properties of the components.

Threshing
When a food grain crop like wheat or paddy matures, it is harvested from the field.
The harvested crop is then dried in the sun. We get bundles of stems or stalks of
dried crop plants which have grains attached at their top.

The grains attached to the stems or stalks are covered in a thin layer called
chaff. Each stalk has a large number of chaff covered grains. Grains are separated
from stems or stalks and Chaff.

The grains are separated from stems or stalks by process of threshing. Threshing is
the process in which stems of wheat or paddy are beaten to separate grains from the
stems and from the chaff that cover the grains.

Stalks or stems of crop plants and the chaff are soft material whereas the grains
themselves are very hard. Being soft, stalks and chaff can be broken into pieces on
beating but the grains remain unaffected.

Threshing is done by holding the bundles of stems in hands and hitting them on a
hard surface. In this way the grains separate from the stems.

Threshing is also done with the help of a cattle. The harvested and dried crop
plants are spread on the ground in a small area, and various cattle such as
buffaloes, camels are made to walk over them in circle again and again, for a
considerable time. The cattle’s feet crush the stems or stalks due to which the
grains get separated from stems. This crushing also breaks the chaff around the
grains and hence the grains get separated from chaff. During threshing, the stalks
are converted into very small pieces called hay which is used as a dry fodder for
cattle. The broken chaff forms the husk. A motorised machine called thresher is
used for threshing process.

Winnowing
Winnowing

When a farmer threshes wheat crop in his field, he gets a mixture of wheat grains
and husk. Before wheat grain can be used, husk has to be removed from them. The
husk is separated from wheat grains by method of winnowing.

Winnowing is the method of separating husk from grains with the help of wind. Husk
is very light whereas wheat grains are heavy. Winnowing is done using winnowing
basket. The farmer stands at a higher platform from the ground and allows the
mixture of wheat grains and husk to fall down from a height by shaking his
winnowing basket continuously.

The wheat grains, being heavy, fall down vertically to the ground and form a heap
of wheat grains. The husk particles, being lighter, are carried away by wind to a
greater distance. So, the husk forms a separate heap at a small distance away from
the heap of wheat grains. In this way, husk gets separated from wheat grains.

The method of winnowing is used to separate husk from various types of grains like
wheat, rice.

We cannot separate small stone particles from wheat by the process of winnowing.
This is because stone particles are quite heavy which cannot be carried away by
wind to a greater distance.