Physical Changes Laboratory

Question: Can you separate water from sugar and sand, without leaving anything behind?

Purpose: To figure out how to separate water from other elements.

Hypothesis: I think that it is possible to separate water from other elements, because liquid evaporates, and most solid does not.

Procedures:

A) Written Procedures: Part one is the distillation process. Take a glass slide, and put two drops of sugar water on it. Heat it gently over an alcohol burner, until all of the water evaporates. Observe the results.

Part two – distillation 2. Take a small electric stove, and place a beaker ¼ filled with sugar water with four drops of food coloring in it. Shove a cork with a rubber tube coming out into the beaker. Put the other end of the tube into a test tube in a glass of cold water, and turn on the stove. Observe.

Part three – Filtration. Mix sugar, water and sand in a glass. Put a paper filter in a funnel, and hold the funnel over the glass. Pour the mixture into the filter-funnel. What separated from the water?

Part four – sugar testing. Take your clear evapourated water (from part two) in its test tube and add blue indicator to it. Then take sugar water in a test tube, and put the two in a glass filled halfway with hot water. Place the glass on an electric stove and heat. Observe the results.

B) Materials List: Part one – distillation.

Alcohol burner

Glass slide

Sugar

Water

Eyedropper

Safety goggles

Matches

Part two – distillation 2.

Electric stove

Beaker

Water

Sugar

Food coloring

Eyedropper

Rubber cork

Rubber tube

Test tube

Glass

Cold water

Safety goggles

Part three – filtration.

Sand

Water

Sugar

2 glasses

Funnel

Paper filter

Safety goggles

Part four – sugar testing.

Clear water in test tube from part two

Large glass

Hot water

Sugar

Water

Blue indicator

Electric stove

Eyedropper

Safety goggles

Observations/data:

Illustration: See next page

Graph: None

Conclusion and Analysis: The answer is clear – it is possible to separate water from solids that were mixed in with it, due to all the supporting data. It was separated from sugar, sand, and food coloring in the above experiments. Try for yourself and see.

New Questions: Can water be turned to another liquid? How can you separate the water from the sugar without making the sugar burn?