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Mixtures and solutions
Centrifugation
1) What is centrifugation ?
Centrifugation consists simply to use a device called centrifuge
2) How does a centrifuge work ?
A centrifuge consists of containers (for receiving heterogeneous mixtures) which can be rotated fast around an axis.
When a body is rotating, it undergoes what is called a centrifugal force which drives it to the bottom of the container (this force increases with the speed of rotation).
In the example of the heterogeneous mixture of water and soil, particles no longer fall to the bottom because of their weight but because of the centrifugal force.
The centrifugal force being stronger than the weight, the solids fall to the bottom faster.
A centrifugation can thus produce the same results as decantation but a much faster than it.
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