Distillation · 3 parts · syllabus 12.4

Can we get the water back?

Get the water back from salty water: connect the condenser, predict what collects and read the thermometer. Then separate two liquids that mix with a fractionating column, and decide what to do when the reading rises.

Start learning Explore the experiment

Water vaporises from salt solution and condenses in a separate receiver.

Follow the idea

The experiment · Salty water, then two liquids that mix · read the thermometer

Run it yourself, or project it for the class

Use the apparatus step by step and look closely at what happens. The whole experiment fits one screen, so it works on a projector too.

Open the experiment

Final check

Explain it on your own across all three parts. Hints and keys stay closed until you submit.

Take the final check

Return and recall

Come back after one to two weeks and answer with the lesson closed.

Recall questions

For teachers

Printable worksheets with their answer keys, the final check and the return questions for this module.

Open the teacher pack

Your saved work

Answers and earlier attempts stay in this browser. Export a copy to keep, to move to another device or to hand to your teacher. Importing a copy keeps your current answers and adds earlier attempts.

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Scope and sources

Cambridge IGCSE Chemistry 0620 · 2026–2028 v2 · Original learning materials.

0620 12.4.1(d/e): simple and fractional distillation; bounded12.4.2 method selection. Nonvolatile salt solution and a hypothetical miscible non-azeotropic A/B mixture. No petroleum fractions, complete purity testing or quantitative equilibrium.

Apparatus, amounts and times in the experiment are illustrative. Real practical work follows a teacher-approved safety method.

Official Cambridge syllabus

Can we get the water back?

Follow the idea

Can we get the water back?

What if both liquids can escape?

Which method fits this mixture?

Run it yourself, or project it for the class