--- title: Separating mixtures — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Separating mixtures», a lesson of the chemistry course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: A mixture is things mixed together but not joined, so you can get them apart again if you pick the right trick. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/8-separating-mixtures/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Chemistry](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/) / Separating mixtures # Separating mixtures Lesson 8 of the chemistry course of Mova's primary school: 15 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/chemistry/8-separating-mixtures/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/8-separating-mixtures/0/) — A mixture is things mixed together but not joined, so you can get them apart again if you pick the right trick. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/8-separating-mixtures/1/) — Each trick uses a difference between the things: size for a sieve or a colander, magnetism for a magnet, weight for settling, and boiling for salt water. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/8-separating-mixtures/2/) — Draining pasta is a separation: the holes of the colander are big enough for water but too small for the pasta. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/8-separating-mixtures/3/) — Dissolved things are harder: salt in water passes through any filter, so you must let the water evaporate to leave the salt behind, or boil it off and catch the steam to get pure water. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/8-separating-mixtures/4/) — Even the colours in black felt-tip ink can be pulled apart on wet kitchen paper. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/8-separating-mixtures/5/) — A colander or a filter lets small things through and keeps bigger things back; a tea bag is a filter too. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/8-separating-mixtures/6/) — A sieve lets fine flour through and keeps lumps; long ago gold miners used pans and sieves to wash gold from river gravel. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/8-separating-mixtures/7/) — Filter paper traps soil grains in muddy water, but filtered water is not safe to drink: germs and dissolved things pass through. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/8-separating-mixtures/8/) — When salty water evaporates, the salt stays behind as crystals; sea salt is made this way in sunny places. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/8-separating-mixtures/9/) — A magnet pulls out iron and steel things but not sand; aluminium cans are not picked up by a magnet. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/8-separating-mixtures/10/) — Things can be sorted by size, shape or colour; factory machines use cameras to sort beans or nuts very fast. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/8-separating-mixtures/11/) — Left to stand, the heavier bits in muddy water settle to the bottom; water works use settling tanks. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/8-separating-mixtures/12/) — Distillation is boiling a liquid and cooling the steam back to liquid; the drops are pure water, and the salt stays behind. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/8-separating-mixtures/13/) — Ships and some dry countries make drinking water from seawater by distillation and other methods. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/8-separating-mixtures/15/) — A salad spinner flings the water outward and off the leaves through the holes; hospitals spin blood fast to separate it into layers. - ← previous: [Oil and water, and things that won't mix](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/7-oil-and-water/) - next →: [Changes you can undo and changes you can't](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/9-changes-you-can-and-cannot-undo/) - ↑ back to [Chemistry](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/)