ShmoopTube

00:03

You can’t handle the Shmoop…

00:07

We can tell you’re itching to read this passage again.

00:09

So hit pause, and may all your dreams come true…

00:19

After a student completes the filtration part of the experiment,

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she realizes that no salt is left on the filter paper.

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What is a possible explanation for this amazing phenomenon?

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And here are the potential answers…

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What’s this question asking?

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Well, we have to figure out what mistakes the student made.

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Awesome. We have plenty of experience making mistakes. Should be easy to recognize.

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So… when was this student’s “Oh shoot” moment… the one that each of us has when

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we realize we’ve locked ourselves out of the house?

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Well, this student’s moment wasn’t quite so drastic…it was probably around the time

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she saw that her filter paper had failed and none of the salt was left on the paper.

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But why did this happen?

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Well, if she had paid as much attention as we did while reading the procedure,

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she would have seen the sentences:

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“If the mixture contains a liquid, one technique is to pass the mixture over a filter.”

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“This step will remove any components of a mixture that are not dissolved in the aqueous mixture.”

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Hmm, this step will remove components that are NOT dissolved.

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NOT dissolved, not dissolved…what’s the problem?

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Oh yeah! Salt dissolves in water, which means the crystals can’t be separated

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from each other with plain ol’ filter.

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No, salt and water have a deeper connection than that…it’ll take a lot more to separate them…

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A distillation chamber might do the trick, though.

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So the filter paper separates sand and water, and the distillation chamber

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separates salt and water.

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The student didn’t do anything wrong.

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Turns out her ‘oh shoot’ moment wasn’t even necessary.

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Looks like A is the right answer.

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Oh shoot…

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