Question

You have a mixture of potassium chloride, water, and olive oil. How would you separate these materials from one another?

a. Distillation
b. Filtration
c. Hand-pick
d. Melt the mixture

Answer 1

To separate a mixture containing potassium chloride, water, and olive oil, use filtration to remove the olive oil, then distillation to separate the potassium chloride from water.

Step-by-step explanation:

To separate a mixture of potassium chloride, water, and olive oil, one could employ a combination of distillation and filtration. Initially, since oil and water do not mix and have different densities, the olive oil can be removed by filtration or decanting. Once the oil is removed, the water and potassium chloride solution can be separated by distillation. During distillation, water, being the more volatile component, will boil and condense first, leaving the potassium chloride behind. Thus, water is collected in a separate flask as distillate, and the remaining potassium chloride can be retrieved from the distillation flask.