Sunday, May 13, 2012

Is tea a homogeneous or a heterogeneous mixture?


     Review the difference between homogeneous and heterogeneous mixtures. Explain how you can tell the difference between a suspension, a solution, and a colloid. Explain how you classified the following: milk, table salt and water, baking soda and water, chalk dust and water. Then, make a hypothesis about what kind of mixture tea is. Respond to your classmates and compare their responses with yours.

3 comments:

  1. Colloids and suspensions are both heterogeneous mixtures because the different components are visible to the naked eye. A solution is a homogeneous mixture because the different components are not visible to the naked eye. Milk is a colloid, chalk dust and water is a suspension and the other two are solutions. I think that tea in a tea bag is a heterogeneous mixture and in a cup is a homogeneous one. Daniel G

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  2. Daniel, good job summarizing the characteristics of the two main types of mixtures! I would add to your comment that milk is a colloid because even though its different components don't separate in different phases (as suspensions do), we can see its particles when we put light in it. My hypothesis is that a hot tea infusion would be a heterogeneous mixture because we can see the different components apart (tea leaves and rest of the mixture). Laura W.

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  3. I would like to say that I agree with my classmates comments so far. Also, I thought I'd add that suspensions are heterogeneous mixtures where its different components settle in separate phases. A good example of a suspension is muddy water. Colloids (like milk and blood) are heterogeneous mixtures in which the fat globules aren't completely dissolved in the fluid of the solvent (i.e. dissolving media). I think that tea is a homogeneous mixture as long as we can't see any of its different components apart. Pamela S.

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