use the characteristics of the element to seperate them, such as

boiling points – distilling alchohol has a higher boiling point than water so water evaporates before the alchohol

magnetivity- metal in sand is a common example of this you just take a magnet to it and the metal coms up but the sand is left behind

desity- thicker things will sink to the bottom thinner will stay on top oil syrup and water will come to syrup on the bottom because it is the most dense water in the middle and oil on top because it is the least dense

there are a bunch more just look them up in your text book

Methods Of Separating Solutions

1. Sublimation. This involves heating a solid until it passes directly from the solid phase into the gaseous phase. The reverse process, when the vapor goes back to the solid phase without a liquid state in between, is called condensation or deposition. Some solids which sublime are iodine, caffeine, and paradichlorobenzene (mothballs). 2. Extraction. This uses a solvent to selectively dissolve one component of the solid mixture. With this technique, a soluble solid can be separated from an insoluble solid. 3. Decantation. This separates a liquid from insoluble solid sediment by carefully pouring the liquid from the solid without disturbing the solid 4. Filtration. This separates a solid from a liquid through the use of a porous material as a filter. Paper, charcoal, or sand can serve as a filter. These materials allow the liquid to pass through but not the solid . 5. Evaporation. This is the process of heating a mixture in order to drive off, in the form of vapor, a volatile liquid, so as to make the remaining component dry.

Mixtures have one or more things that don’t cling to each other. For purposes of this discussion, liquids that don’t want to mix, and separate on their own (immiscible liquids) can be considered mixtures.

Separation methods:

* filtration by a grating, if the substances are of different particle sizes

* evaporation, if only one is a liquid

* vibration to induce sedimentation: in a mixture of small and large particles of very similar density, large particles will tend to settle above small particles; they can then be picked off. In a mixture of dense particles with less-dense, vibration will tend to bring the denser materials to the bottom. If they are identifiable by color, they are then easily separated.

* decanting, if when they separate, immiscible liquids also separate into distinct layers, like oil above water. The liquid chemicals in a lava lamp are poor candidates for this kind of MECHANICAL separation because, while they can be seen as separate, they don’t easily stack into layers.

* centrifuging can increase the effectiveness of achieving layering by gravity, and decanting may follow that. Centrifuges act like increased gravity.

* “sopping up” (absorption) if only one is an absorbable liquid and you have an appropriate absorption material.

* adsorption, the attachment of a liquid onto something with microscopic openings on its surface, like activated charcoal. After the adsorbing material does its thing, it has to be separated as a solid from the mixture. Sometimes adsorption can be controlled to pick up only one liquid, based upon its molecule size or its molecular polarity.

* sorting, if the substances look different, like identifying each by its color. The smaller the pieces, the harder this is.

* dissolving, if a solvent can be found that dissolves or liquifies only one substance at a time

* magnetism can be used to separate a magnetic solid from other materials. A thin cover can be placed over magnets immersed in the mixture, and then stripping that cover away over a collection receptacle will cause the magnetic material(s) to drop into the receptacle. Very useful if only one of the solid materials is magnetic.

Solutions are liquids (or liquids plus dissolved solids) that mix very thoroughly. For purposes of this analysis, solutions will not include suspensions, a liquid kind of mixture. Some suspensions CAN be treated like solutions, for separation purposes.

Separation methods:

* Evaporation, if you know the temperature at which each liquid will evaporate, or you know that each liquid has a very distinct evaporation temperature. Separating multiple liquids is sometimes called distillation. Knowledge of the liquids’ properties is invaluable in using distillation.

* Precipitation: Adding a chemical known to combine with one or more dissolved solids or one of the liquids so that a precipitate forms: a solid substance that will settle out and can then be left behind by decanting or filtering.

* magnetism can pick up magnetic materials, even if they are dissolved, but being dissolved may hinder this collection method.

* I think centrifuging can separate some solutions, but the molecular forces leading to solution may be hard to overpower, and the centrifuging may need to be extreme.

That’s all I can remember from 43 years ago.