Purpose: The purpose of this experiment is to study the physical properties of salt, sand, and iron and use this information to design and carry out a procedure to separate a mixture of these substances.  The mass percent composition of the mixture can be calculated from the masses of the recovered components.

Hypothesis: When the physical properties of individual substances within a mixture are identified, then it could be separated into its different components by using the appropriate separation technique.

Variables:

Independent: The composition of the mixture 

Dependent:  The mass percentage of each component in the mixture

Control: The original composition of the substances in the mixture

Materials:

Safety:

Summary of Procedure:  In this experiment, the physical properties of salt, sand, and iron will be used to carry out a procedure to separate a mixture of these substances.  The mass percent composition of the mixture will be calculated from the masses of the recovered components.