Separating mixtures?

Question

What could I do to separate the sand from a mixture of charcoal, sand, sugar, and water? This is what I was thinking but I'm not sure if it will work. I could leave the mixture out in the sun so the water can evaporate and then take out the charcoal with tweezers or something and then put it through a strainer to let all the sugar go through and I'd be left with just sand. Would that work? help me out plz I'm dumb lol

Answer 1

If you shake the mixture up a lot (or warm it slightly), the sugar will completely dissolve in the water.  Then you can pour the mixture through a filter paper in a funnel, and you'll have a sugar & water solution, and a sand and charcoal mixture.  Then you can use a sieve to separate the sand & charcoal...

Answer 2

If enough water so all of the sugar dissolves, filter and rinse with water to get two mixtures: charcoal + sand and sugar-water. Get sugar by distilling off and collecting water (if you need to preserve it).

Charcoal + sand  separation is more difficult! Unless the charcoal is in significantly larger chunks than the grains of sand, sieving will not work. The way they separate coal from rock (sand) is floatation with agitation. The lighter coal (even with some rock/sand in it) floats while the rocks sink. Coal goes to the power plant - rocks go to the coal waste pile. Some waste is highly concentrated with pyrite which oxidizes and pollute streams - big problem in WV and KY.