Applications of Separating Mixtures in day-to-day life

1. We filter dirty water through a piece of cotton cloth to obtain clean water at home. However, we should always boil such water to kill germs before drinking it.

2. We filter tea leaves from the tea before taking the tea.

3. Decantation separates the cream from milk. Cream rises to the top of the liquid and is easily skimmed off.

4. Fractional distillation is used in some industries to separate components of mixtures that have different boiling points. Example is crude oil refining. Crude oil consists of products with different boiling points. The components of crude oil include:

5. Petrol- a fuel for petrol engines.

6. Kerosene-used in cooking stoves and lamps.

7. Gas oil, lubricating oil, paraffin wax and bitumen or tar used for tarmacking roads.

8. Fractional distillation is used to separate liquid air into its major components of nitrogen and oxygen.

9. Chromatography can be used to find out which flavouring has been added to food.

10. Extraction of oil from nuts uses the solvent extraction method.