Question

What is the purpose of a centrifuge?

1) To separate the different components of a liquid
2) To mix the different components of a liquid
3) To heat the different components of a liquid
4) To freeze the different components of a liquid

Answer 1

The purpose of a centrifuge is to separate the different components of a liquid by density. It uses high speed spinning to move more dense particles to the outer edges, separating them from less dense components in medical and scientific applications.

Step-by-step explanation:

The purpose of a centrifuge is to separate the different components of a liquid based on their densities. Centrifuges operate by spinning containers of liquid at high speed. Because of inertia and the large angular velocity, the more dense particles in the fluid sediment are flung outward and eventually come into contact with the walls of the container, allowing them to separate from the less dense components. This method of separation is utilized in various scientific and medical fields, for example, to separate single cell suspensions such as bacteria, viruses, and blood cells from a liquid medium or to isolate macromolecules like DNA and protein from a solution.

Centrifuges are often rated by their centripetal acceleration relative to gravity, referred to as 'g'. These devices can achieve maximum centripetal accelerations of several hundred thousand g, especially in a vacuum setting. This technology is also applied in testing the tolerance of astronauts to accelerations greater than Earth's gravity using human centrifuges.