Question

How will you separate the mixture of glass powder and sugar ?
a.) Distillation
b.) Fractional distillation
c.) Evaporation
d.) Filtration

Answer 1

Hint: The glass powder is insoluble in water while the sugar is soluble in water. Thus, dissolving the mixture in water and by use of correct separation technique which could differentiate between a solid and a liquid could be used. The technique that requires both the components to be soluble to separate can not be used.

Complete step by step answer:
We have studied that glass powder is insoluble in water. This means if we try to dissolve it in water, it will not form a clear mixture. But the sugar is soluble in water and when we put sugar in water, it gets completely dissolved and thereby gives a clear solution.
So, if we dissolve the mixture in water. The sugar will get dissolved while the glass powder will remain as solid in the solution. After this, by using a certain technique we can separate these.

Now, let us see the techniques given to us and then we can easily guess the right answer.
The first technique given is using distillation. It is the process of boiling the liquid and immediately condensing it to get a specific component which got boiled at that point. This technique can not be used because both the components do not get dissolved.
The second technique given is fractional distillation. This can not be used because it requires both the components to be liquid and this is not the case here.

Now, comes the third option evaporation. This could also be used. If we dissolve the mixture and then evaporate it. The sugar will form vapours and go while the solid glass powder will remain in the beaker. So, this option is correct but this way we can only get glass powder and not sugar.

The last and the fourth option is the filtration. As we have dissolved the mixture in water, the glass powder is present as solid. This can be filtered and we get solid glass powder on filter paper as precipitate while the solution will be down in filtrate. On cooling the solution we can get crystals of sugar
So, the correct answer is “Option D”.

Note: It must be noted that during filtration, it could be normal. But it is always better to use Whatman filter paper. Further, if one uses vacuum filtration, then the solid will be better filtered. The filtrate on cooling will give us sugar crystals.