How Do I Separate Sand & Water?

Sand and water stay separate in nature.

When you're at the beach, you'll find the sand and water are naturally separated in most instances. Because it is more dense than ocean water, beach sand settles into of the water as a sediment. This is a type of separation process, but it is a very slow one. If you kick up sand and water on your beach visit, for example, the sand will only slowly separate out of the water again. Letting gravity take its course is one way to separate sand and water, but there are other techniques that are faster.

Things You'll Need

• Cone coffee filter
• Funnel
• 2 laboratory beakers

Instructions

1. Place a cone coffee filter in a funnel with the pointed end down.

2. Place the funnel in a beaker with the spout of the funnel pointed toward the bottom of the beaker.

3. Pour your sand-and-water mixture slowly into the funnel until all of the mixture has passed through the funnel.

4. Remove the funnel from the beaker, then carefully remove the filter from the funnel.

5. Place the cone filter in a safe location, and allow the filter -- full of sand -- to dry in a quiet location.

6. Brush the separated sand, once dried, from the filter into a separate beaker.

References

• Grand Valley State University: Separate This: Mixtures and Solutions
• Arizona State University; Separation of Mixtures: Properties in Matter; E. Y. Siu, et al.