NCERT Solutions Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life

F R E E S T U D Y M AT E R I A L F O R E V E R Y S T U D E N T

CLASS 6 · SCIENCE

NCERT Solutions

Chapter 9: Methods of
Separation in Everyday Life

NCERT Textbook — Curiosity

BOOK PAGES SECTIONS QUESTIONS MEDIUM

163 – 181 15 49 English

Solutions, notes, sample papers & more at 44 pages

Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

CLASS 6 · SCIENCE · CURIOSITY

NCERT Solutions — Chapter 9: Methods of Separation
in Everyday Life
Complete NCERT Solutions for Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life from the
NCERT textbook Curiosity. Every question of the chapter is answered — Activities 9.1 to 9.6, all the “?” thought
boxes, “More to do!”, the WISE FISH game, all ten questions of Let us enhance our learning and every task
under Learning further — with the method, the property it uses (size, weight, density or solubility) and an
Indian everyday example.

TEXTBOOK BOOK PAGES

Curiosity (Class 6) 163 – 181

SECTIONS QUESTIONS

15 49

MEDIUM

English

In-text Questions — Pages 163–164
Chapter opening — Malli and Valli begin the ‘Bharat ki Yatra’

Q1 Do you also keep in touch with your loved ones?

Yes. Malli and Valli’s family stays in touch with relatives and friends spread all over India, and
most of us do the same.

By phone and video call — a call to Nani in the village on a Sunday, a video call so that
grandparents can see how tall you have grown.
By visiting — summer holidays at Nana–Nani’s house, going home for Diwali, Pongal, Bihu
or Eid.
By letters and messages — a postcard, a greeting card at the New Year, a message on a
phone.
By small gifts of the season — mangoes, jaggery, home-made pickle or laddoos sent when
someone travels that way.

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Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why the book begins here: the whole chapter is a journey. Because the family
keeps in touch, the children are able to travel to Haryana, Gujarat, Puducherry,
Madhya Pradesh and Meghalaya — and at each place they see a different method of
separation being used in ordinary life. Science is not only in the laboratory; it is in
Nani’s courtyard.

Try This: Draw a map of India in your notebook and mark the five places Malli and
Valli visit — Haryana, Ahmedabad (Gujarat), Puducherry, Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh)
and Shillong (Meghalaya). Write beside each one the method of separation they
learnt there.

Q2 Explore folk songs of your region and try to sing along with your friends.

The farmers in the field sing while they beat the stalks — that is not a waste of time. A work
song keeps everyone beating in the same rhythm, and a job done in rhythm is faster and less
tiring.
How to do this activity:

1. Ask an elder in your family — a grandmother, a farm worker, a mason — for a song they sing
while working.
2. Write down the words in your notebook and find out what they mean.
3. Learn the tune, then sing it in a group in class, clapping the beat.

Some folk songs connected with the harvest:

REGION FOLK FORM SUNG WHEN

Punjab and Haryana Boliyan, Bhangra and Giddha songs At the wheat harvest, Baisakhi

Assam Bihu geet Sowing and harvest of paddy

Maharashtra Ovi — sung at the grinding stone While grinding grain at dawn

Bihar and eastern U.P. Ropni and Katni songs, Sohar Transplanting and cutting paddy

Tamil Nadu Nattupura paadalgal Threshing and pounding grain

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Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Did you know? Kabir’s couplet at the start of this chapter is itself a folk verse about
winnowing — the soop keeps the good grain and blows away the empty husk, just as
a wise person keeps virtues and lets faults go.

Activity 9.1: Let us explore — Page 165
Rubbing and blowing roasted peanuts

ACTIVITY

Q1 Take a handful of roasted peanuts and rub them between your palms. What
happens?

The thin, papery red-brown skin comes off the peanuts. After rubbing you are left with two
things lying together in your palm:

Peanut seeds — smooth, pale, fairly heavy.
Loose skins — thin, papery flakes, almost weightless.

Why it happens: roasting dries the skin so it shrinks and loses its grip on the seed.
Rubbing gives the sideways push that breaks that last grip. This is exactly what
threshing does to wheat on a bigger scale — beating loosens what is only lightly
attached.

Check it yourself: Try rubbing a raw peanut the same way. The skin does not come
off easily, because it is still moist and sticks to the seed.

Q2 Is it possible to separate the removed skin and the peanuts?

Yes — and very easily, because the two components are now simply lying mixed together and
are very different from each other.

Page 3 of 44

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Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

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WAY TO SEPARATE PROPERTY IT USES WORKS WELL?

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Handpicking
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Difference in size, colour and
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Works, but far too slow — there are hundreds of

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shape tiny flakes

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winnowing

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Sieving Difference in size
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The idea to hold on to: a mixture can usually be separated in more than one way.
The best method is the one that uses the property in which the two components
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differ the most. Here that property is weight, not size.
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The papery skins fly away with the puff of air and float down some distance away. The peanut
seeds stay in your palm, hardly moving.

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Light skin + moving air → carried far away
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Heavy peanut + moving air → stays where it was

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Why it happens: the moving air pushes on both. But the skin has very little weight
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and a fairly large flat surface, so the push of the air easily lifts and carries it. The
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peanut is many times heavier for its size, so the same push is far too weak to move
it.
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Tip: Do this over a newspaper spread on the floor, and blow gently and steadily. A
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sudden hard blow scatters the peanuts too and spoils the separation — which is why
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Q4 Which of these components—removed peanut skins or peanuts are blown away?

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The removed peanut skins are blown away. The peanuts are not.

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Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why: the skins are the lighter component of the mixture. Blowing air always
separates a mixture into a heavier part that falls close by and a lighter part that is
carried away. This single observation is the whole principle of winnowing, which
farmers use on the threshed wheat in the very next paragraph of the chapter.

Did you know? The same trick is used in your kitchen. After roasting and rubbing
chana (gram), people toss it in a plate near an open window — the skins drift off and
the gram stays back.

In-text Questions — Page 165
Separating grains from husk — the soop and the wind

Q1 A small amount of puffed rice is mixed with chana dal. Can you think of separating
the mixture by any method other than handpicking?

Yes — winnowing (blowing air) is the best method here.
Compare the two components:

COMPONENT WHAT IT IS LIKE

Puffed rice (murmura) Full of air, very light for its size, floats on the slightest breeze

Chana dal Hard, solid and comparatively heavy

Put the mixture in a soop or a flat plate.

Toss it gently in front of a fan or in the breeze.

The murmura is blown aside; the chana dal falls back into the tray.

Why handpicking is a poor choice here: handpicking is convenient only when the
unwanted component is present in a small quantity and the pieces are big enough to
pick up. Grains of murmura are many, light and crumble when pinched — you would
be at it all evening.

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Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Another workable method: sieving, using a sieve whose holes let the chana dal
through but hold back the bigger puffed rice. Winnowing is still quicker.

Q2 How do you think farmers separate so many grains from husk?

They let the wind do the work — the method is called winnowing.

1. The threshed heap (grain and husk together) is scooped into a soop, a shallow tray woven
from bamboo.
2. The farmer stands on a raised platform so that the falling material has a long way to travel
through the moving air.
3. He tosses the material upward, into the direction of the wind, again and again.
4. Grains, being heavy, fall almost straight down into a neat heap. The husk, being light, is
carried sideways and settles far away.

Why the raised platform matters: the longer the material stays in the air, the
longer the wind has to push the husk sideways. From a low height the two would
land almost together and the separation would be poor.

Did you know? A modern thresher machine does threshing and winnowing at the
same time — it beats the stalks and then blows a strong jet of air through the falling
grain.

Q3 What do you infer from Fig. 9.4? Do both the components, wheat grains and husk,
fall at the same place? Which of the two components get blown away? Can the wind
separate the two components?

No, they do not fall at the same place. The husk is blown away and lands far off; the grains
fall close to the farmer’s feet. Yes, the wind can separate the two components — that is
exactly what the figure shows.

Page 6 of 44

Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Direction of wind

Soop (bamboo tray)

Raised platform

Grains (heavy) fall close by Husk (light) is carried away

Winnowing: the same wind acts on both components, but it can move only the light husk. The heavy
grains drop almost straight down and form a separate heap.

Why they land in different places: the wind gives the same sideways push to
everything falling out of the tray. A light piece of husk is easily shifted by that push
and drifts far. A heavy grain hardly notices it and falls nearly straight down. Two
heaps therefore form — grain near the platform, husk further away.

Tip: This is why winnowing fails indoors. In a closed room with no moving air there is
no sideways push at all, and both components land in the same place.

In-text Questions — Pages 166–167
Winnowing indoors, and sieving the atta

Q1 Valli is unable to separate husk from rice in a closed room. How can you help her?

Winnowing needs moving air. A closed room has none, so nothing gets carried away. Give Valli
one of these:

Page 7 of 44

Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Switch on a fan — a table fan or the ceiling fan on low speed — and let her drop the mixture
slowly in front of it. The husk is blown aside.
Blow on it herself, exactly as in Activity 9.1 with the peanut skins, taking a little of the
mixture at a time on a plate.
Open a window or door and stand in the draught, or step out into the courtyard where a
breeze is blowing.
Sieve it if the husk pieces are much bigger than the rice grains — that uses size instead of
weight and does not need air at all.

Why the fan works: winnowing does not really need wind — it needs air moving
past the falling mixture. A fan makes exactly that. The husk, being lighter, is pushed
sideways; the rice, being heavier, falls into the tray.

Check it yourself: Hold a plate of poha and a few grains of rice in front of a table
fan. Notice how much further the poha travels. Same wind, different weights —
different landing places.

Q2 Carefully observe a sieve. Are all the holes of the sieve the same size? Will sieving
work if the holes of the sieve are larger than the substances? Is there any
difference in the size between the particles that pass through the sieve and the
particles that remain on the sieve?

Taking the three questions one by one:

1. Are all the holes the same size? — Yes. In one sieve every hole is of the same size, and they
are evenly spaced. That is what makes the sieve a fair “size test”: a particle either fits through
every hole or through none of them.
2. Will sieving work if the holes are larger than the substances? — No. If both components
are smaller than the holes, everything falls through and nothing is separated. Sieving works
only when the hole size lies between the sizes of the two components.
3. Is there a difference in size between what passes and what stays? — Yes, and that is
the whole point. Whatever comes through is smaller than a hole; whatever stays back is
bigger than a hole.

Fine atta particles < hole size → pass through (this is the flour we use)

Bran and small stones > hole size → remain on the sieve

Page 8 of 44

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Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
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Why the right sieve matters: a sieve does not ask what a thing is made of, only

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how big it is. So the whole job is choosing a sieve whose holes are bigger than the
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Tip: Sieving is used only for a solid–solid mixture whose particles differ in size. It
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Have you ever observed sieves being used at construction sites to
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Q3

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stones from the sand?

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Yes. At any building site you will see a large sloping wire-mesh screen leaning against a wall. A
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worker throws shovelfuls of sand at it.
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WHAT HAPPENS
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Fine sand passes through the mesh and piles up behind it
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Sand grains are smaller than the holes of the
mesh
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m collect in front
Pebbles, stones and lumps slide down the face of the mesh They are bigger than the holes, so they

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and cannot get through

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Why builders bother: plaster and mortar must be smooth. A single pebble in the
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mix leaves a bump or a hollow in the wall. The clean sieved sand goes into plaster;
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the pebbles are not thrown away
wanted.

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Look around: the same idea appears in a chalni for atta, the perforated basket in
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which vegetables are washed, a tea strainer, and the jhara used to lift pakoras out of
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In-text Questions — Pages 167–168
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Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Sabarmati Ashram, and where common salt comes from

MORE TO DO!

Q1 What is Sabarmati Ashram famous for? Draw a poster showing Dandi March and
discuss why it was organised.

Sabarmati Ashram, on the bank of the river Sabarmati in Ahmedabad, was Mahatma Gandhi’s
home from 1917 to 1930. It is famous as the place from which he led much of India’s freedom
struggle, and from where the Dandi March began.

FACT DETAIL

Started on 12 March 1930, from Sabarmati Ashram

Ended at Dandi, on the sea coast of Gujarat, on 6 April 1930

Distance walked About 385 km, on foot, in 24 days

Started with Gandhiji and 78 companions; thousands joined on the way

What he did at Dandi Picked up a lump of natural salt from the shore, breaking the salt law

Why it was organised: the British government had made it illegal for Indians to make or collect
their own salt, and had put a tax on the salt everyone had to buy. Salt is used by every
household in the country, rich or poor, so the tax hurt the poorest most. Gandhiji chose salt
deliberately — it turned a simple, everyday need into a symbol of an unjust rule. Breaking the
salt law was non-violent civil disobedience, and it made the freedom movement a truly mass
movement.

Sample answer — what to put on your poster: a long line of marchers with
Gandhiji in front, walking stick in hand; the map of Gujarat with the route Sabarmati
→ Dandi; the sea and salt pans at the bottom; and the words “Namak Satyagrah, 12
March – 6 April 1930”. In one corner draw a heap of salt with the caption “Salt belongs
to the people of India.”

The link with this chapter: the salt Gandhiji lifted at Dandi had been made by
nature using a method from this very chapter — evaporation of seawater in the sun.

Page 10 of 44

Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q2 Where is namak (common salt) obtained from?

From seawater — and also from salt lakes and from rock-salt mines.
Seawater is a mixture: several salts and other substances are dissolved in water. Salt is
separated from it like this:

Seawater is let into wide, shallow pits near the coast.

Sun and wind make the water evaporate.

In a few days the water is gone and a solid mixture of salts is left in the pit.

This is purified further to give the common salt we eat.

Why the pits are shallow and wide: evaporation happens at the surface. A wide,
shallow pit gives a large surface and a thin layer of water, so the sun heats it quickly
and it dries in days rather than months.

Did you know? India is one of the world’s largest producers of salt. The salt pans of
Kharaghoda and the Little Rann of Kutch in Gujarat, Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu and
Mumbai’s coast supply much of it. The workers who make it are called agariyas.

Q3 Find out about some water bodies in India that contain common salt. One such
source is Sambhar Lake in Rajasthan.

Besides the sea, several inland lakes in India are salty. Water flows into them but has no river
flowing out, so it can leave only by evaporating — and the salt it carried in stays behind and
keeps building up.

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Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

WATER BODY STATE NOTE

Sambhar Lake Rajasthan India’s largest inland salt lake; salt has been made here for
centuries

Pachpadra and Didwana Rajasthan Old salt-producing lakes of the Thar region
lakes

Lonar Lake Maharashtra Salty crater lake formed by a meteorite impact

Pangong Tso and Tso Ladakh High-altitude salt-water lakes
Moriri

Chilika Lake Odisha A brackish lagoon joined to the Bay of Bengal

Rann of Kutch Gujarat A vast salt marsh that dries into a white salt desert

Why a lake turns salty: rainwater running over rocks and soil dissolves tiny
amounts of salts and carries them into the lake. Water leaves the lake as vapour, but
the salt cannot become vapour — so with every dry season the lake gets a little
saltier.

Try This: Mark these places on an outline map of India. You will notice that most of
them lie in dry regions, where evaporation is fast and rainfall is low.

Activity 9.2: Let us observe and create — Page 168
Drops of salt solution on black paper

ACTIVITY

Q1 Do you observe some patches on the paper? What do you think is left on the paper?
You can feel the presence of salt by touching the paper. Where has the water
disappeared?

Yes — after the drops dry, faint white patches appear on the black paper, exactly where the
drops were. What is left there is the salt. It feels slightly rough and gritty when you run a finger
over it.
Where the water went: it did not vanish. It evaporated — it changed slowly into water vapour
and mixed into the air of the room.

Page 12 of 44

Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Salt solution on paper

→ water changes to water vapour and goes into the air (evaporation)

→ salt is left behind as a white patch

Why only the water leaves: water turns into vapour easily at ordinary
temperatures. Salt does not — it stays as a solid. So when the mixture dries, the
solvent goes and the dissolved solid stays. This is precisely how salt is obtained
from seawater in the salt pans, only there the “paper” is a huge shallow pit and the
“drying” is done by the sun.

Try This: Make your own salt art. Paint a pattern on thick black paper with the salt
solution and let it dry in the sun. The dried lines show up in white — the salt has
drawn your picture for you.

Q2 Have you ever observed white patches on the dark coloured clothes you wear
during hot summers? How are these patches formed?

Yes — those whitish rings on a dark shirt, usually under the arms, on the collar and on the back,
are made of salt from our own sweat.

Sweat = water + common salt and other substances dissolved in it

In the heat, the water evaporates from the cloth

The salt cannot evaporate, so it stays in the cloth → white patch

Why it shows up in summer and on dark clothes: in hot weather we sweat far
more, so more salt is deposited. And white salt against a dark colour is easy to see —
on a white shirt the same patch is nearly invisible.

Did you know? This is why we are told to drink nimbu-paani with a pinch of salt, or
ORS, on a hot day. Sweating loses the body both water and salt, and both have to be
put back.

Page 13 of 44

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Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
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Activity 9.3: Let us investigate — Page 169
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Heating salt solution in a china dish
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ACTIVITY

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What do you observe? What is left in the china dish? Did you get the salt back?
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Q1

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On heating, the solution first boils. Steam rises from the dish and the liquid level keeps falling.

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When all the water has boiled away, a layer of dry white salt is left sticking to the china dish.
co
em.
Yes, the salt is recovered — you can feel it with your fingers once the dish has cooled.

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Salt solution heated

a g → water boils away as vapour

m a s
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→ white solid salt remains in the china dish

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Why filtration would not have worked here: in a solution the salt is broken up so
finely that it passes through the tiniest pores along with the water — you cannot see

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it and you cannot strain it out. The only way to separate a dissolved solid is to send
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the liquid away as vapour, that is, by evaporation.
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Is there any method through which I can get back both salt and water? Observe the
figure. Does it answer the question? Can you name the process involved?

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g the air. To keep both, catch the
.c In Activity 9.3 the salt was saved but the water was lost into
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Yes.

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The picture shows exactly that — steam from the kettle strikes a cool plate held above it, and
clear water drips from the plate into a glass.
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Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Heat the salt solution → water becomes vapour ……… evaporation

Cool the vapour on a cold surface → vapour becomes liquid ……… condensation

Result: pure water in the glass + salt left in the vessel

Name of the process: the pair of steps together is evaporation followed by condensation.
When it is done in the laboratory with proper apparatus, it is called distillation.

Why the drops are pure water: only the water turns to vapour. The salt stays
behind in the hot vessel. So whatever condenses on the cool plate is water without
the salt — this is how distilled water is made.

Check it yourself: Hold a cold steel plate a little above the steam of a pan of boiling
water for a few seconds. Water droplets form on the underside. That is
condensation, the reverse of evaporation — and it is also how rain is formed.

In-text Questions — Pages 170–171
Dada makes tea — sedimentation, decantation and filtration

Q1 After preparing tea, how do you remove the tea leaves?

There are two ways, and the chapter shows both.

1. With a strainer — filtration. Pour the tea through a tea strainer. All the leaves are held back
in the mesh and clear tea runs into the cup.
2. Without a strainer — sedimentation followed by decantation. Leave the pan undisturbed
for a while so the leaves settle at the bottom, then tilt the pan gently and pour the tea into
the cup, stopping before the sediment reaches the lip.

Page 15 of 44

Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Sedimentation Decantation

clear liquid above

settled tea leaves

sediment stays
behind
clear tea

Heavier insoluble particles settle at the bottom. The clear liquid is gently poured off.

Sedimentation and decantation are two steps of the same job: first let the heavy leaves settle, then
pour the clear tea away from them.

Which is better: filtration, because it removes every leaf. Decantation is quicker and
needs no equipment, but a few fine leaves always come along with the liquid —
which is why Dada still gets some leaves in his mouth.

Tip: Decantation works only if the solid is heavier than the liquid and insoluble in it,
so that it settles. Sugar dissolved in the tea can never be decanted off.

Q2 In the chapter ‘Materials Around Us’, you have studied that oil does not mix with
water and forms a separate layer when left undisturbed for some time. Which
method of separation would you use to separate oil and water?

Decantation.

1. Leave the mixture undisturbed until two clear layers form — oil on top, water below.
2. Tilt the vessel slowly and pour off the upper oil layer into another container; or use a small
tap at the bottom (a separating funnel) to run the lower water layer out first.

Page 16 of 44

Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why it works: oil and water are immiscible — they do not mix into each other. And
oil is lighter (less dense) than water, so it always floats. Because the boundary
between the two layers is sharp, the top layer can simply be poured away from the
bottom one.

Why not filtration? A filter separates a solid from a liquid. Oil is a liquid — it would
simply run through the filter paper along with the water. In the same way, milk
cream is skimmed off the top of milk because it is lighter.

Q3 Balan asks Malli if he could use a tea strainer to filter muddy water. Let us try and
find out.

Not properly. A tea strainer takes out only the biggest bits — leaves, twigs, grit. The water that
comes through is still brown and muddy.

FILTER USED PORE SIZE RESULT WITH MUDDY WATER

Tea strainer Fairly large holes Big pieces removed; water still muddy

Muslin cloth (a few Small pores between the woven Much clearer, but a fine haze remains
layers) threads

Filter paper Very fine pores Mud held back as residue; clear filtrate
collected

Why: a filter stops only those particles that are bigger than its pores. Mud particles
are extremely fine, so they slip straight through the wide holes of a tea strainer. To
stop them, the pores must be finer than the particles.

Important: even filter paper does not make pond water safe to drink. It removes
what you can see, but not the germs. Water must also be boiled (or treated)
afterwards — which is just what Leela does in Question 10 of the exercise.

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Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q4 Why should we use a piece of cloth?

Because a woven cloth is already a ready-made filter. In a piece of cloth there are very small
holes or pores between the woven threads, and these pores do the filtering.

The pores are much finer than the holes of a tea strainer, so far more mud is held back.
Cloth is cheap, available in every home and can be washed and used again.
Folding it gives several layers, which makes the path narrower still and traps more.

An old Indian practice: people have strained drinking water through cloth for
centuries — the chapter says so plainly. A folded cotton or muslin cloth over the
mouth of a matka still filters water in many villages.

Did you know? The same idea explains a malmal tea bag, a chhanni used for curd,
and even the cloth mask you wore during COVID-19 — all of them work because of
the pores between the threads.

Q5 How many layers of cloth do I need to use to get clear water?

There is no single fixed number — it depends on how muddy the water is and how fine the cloth
is. As a working rule, three to four layers of clean cotton or muslin cloth give clearly better
water than one.

1 layer → some mud passes through, water still brownish

2–3 layers → noticeably clearer

4 layers → clearer still, but the water now trickles very slowly

Why more layers help: each layer has its own pores, and the pores of one layer do
not line up with those of the next. So a particle that slips through the first layer is
likely to be stopped by the second or the third. Effectively, more layers means finer
filtering.

Page 18 of 44

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Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
The trade-off: beyond a point extra layers only slow the flow to a drip without

m l a se
making the water much cleaner. If the water is still not clear, do not keep adding
o
m .c the mud settle first (sedimentation) and then filter, oraguse a finer filter
cloth — let
a e filter paper.
sas
ag l
such

. c om ag
Activity 9.4: Let us experiment —ePage
s m 171
a
agl
Filtering muddy water through a filter paper

m
ACTIVITY

co
em.
m l as
.co g
Try to fold the filter paper yourself and make a cone as shown in Fig. 9.10.
a
Q1

a s em
a l
gANSWER
s
How to fold it — four steps, exactly as in Fig. 9.10:
m a
1. Start with a round filter paper lying flat.
m .co agl
l a se
2. One fold — fold it exactly in half. You now have a half-circle.
a g
3. Two folds — fold the half-circle in half again. You now have a quarter-circle.
4. Cone — open the quarter out so that three layers lie on one side and one layer on the

co m
.
other. It opens into a cone that sits neatly inside the funnel.

se m
o m l a
g of the funnel, so the
m .c a cone and not a flat disc: the cone matches the shape
Why a
asepaper touches the glass all round and there is no gap along the edge. If there were a
agl gap, the muddy water would run past the paper instead of through it, and nothing
would be filtered.
se m
com g l a
m . a
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as a little clean water before pouring. The damp paper
g l
Tip: Wet the folded cone with
sticks to the funnel andastays in place while you pour.

co m
m .
o m l a sethe filter paper?
.c a g
m
What do you observe? Do the mud particles pass through

se
Q2

a
agl c
.

s e m
m a
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No, the mud particles do not pass through. They are held back on the filter paper. The water

m .
that trickles out of the funnel into the conical flask is clear.

as e
a g l

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m .
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Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

On the filter paper → mud …………… this is the residue

In the conical flask → clear water …… this is the filtrate

Stand

Filter paper
Muddy water

Residue (mud)
stays on the paper

Funnel

Conical flask

Filtrate
(clear water collected)

Filtration: the filter paper acts as a sieve with extremely fine pores. Water molecules go through; the
larger mud particles cannot, and are left on the paper as residue.

Why it works: a filter paper is full of very fine pores. Anything smaller than a pore
passes; anything larger is stopped. Mud particles, though invisible to the eye, are far
bigger than these pores — so they are trapped and the water goes through.

Did you know? Other materials work as filters too — cotton, charcoal and sand are
all used in water filters. Which one you choose depends on the size of the particles
you want to remove. Charcoal also takes away bad smell and colour.

Activity 9.5: Let us design and create — Page 172

Page 20 of 44

Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Building a low-cost water filter

ACTIVITY

Q1 Valli goes for a nature walk with her Dadi and collects some water from a pond in a
container. She observes some unwanted substances in it. Design and create a
working model of water filter using low-cost materials.

Sample answer — a three-layer bottle filter. This is a design you can build in the classroom;
write your own observations after testing it.
Things you need: one empty 2-litre plastic bottle, a clean cotton cloth or old cotton wool,
washed coarse sand, washed fine sand, small pebbles or gravel, powdered charcoal from a
burnt-out chulha, a rubber band and a glass to catch the water.
How to make it:

1. Cut off the bottom of the bottle and turn it upside down, so the cap end points into the
glass. Remove the cap.
2. Tie the cotton cloth over the mouth with the rubber band. This is the finest layer and it goes
at the bottom.
3. Now fill, from the bottom upward: a layer of cotton → charcoal powder → fine sand →
coarse sand → pebbles on top.
4. Pour clean water through two or three times first, to wash the layers.
5. Now pour the pond water in slowly at the top and watch what collects in the glass.

LAYER (TOP TO WHAT IT REMOVES WHY
BOTTOM)

Pebbles / gravel Leaves, twigs, insects Largest gaps — stops only big
things

Coarse sand Grit and larger dirt particles Smaller gaps

Fine sand Fine mud, making the water clear Very small gaps between grains

Charcoal Colour and bad smell Charcoal holds these on its
surface

Cotton cloth Anything still left; also holds the Finest pores of all
layers in

Page 21 of 44

Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why the layers go coarse-on-top and fine-at-the-bottom: the big pieces are
removed first, so the fine sand below does not choke immediately. This is exactly
how a municipal water works treats river water — screens, then settling tanks, then
sand beds.

Important: water from this filter looks clean but is not safe to drink. Filtration
removes only what is big enough to be trapped; germs are far too small. Always boil
the water afterwards.

In-text Questions — Pages 173–174
River pollution, churning at the dhaba, and the carpenter’s magnet

Q1 Let us raise awareness about the issues related to river and ocean pollution by
composing a poem. A few lines have been written here, add more lines—

What your poem should carry: what the pollution is (plastic bags, bottles, wrappers, straws),
who it hurts (fish like Koilas, birds, and us), where it comes from (our own homes and streets)
and what we can do (refuse single-use plastic, never throw waste into water, pick up what we
see).

Sample answer — lines you can add to the book’s poem:

A bottle cap, a broken straw,
A wrapper from a shop next door,
The drain took it, the river too,
And left it at the ocean floor.

Koilas cannot tell the tale,
Of nets that catch both fish and mail —
Of packets, bags and plastic string,
Caught up in the fisherman’s haul.

So carry a cloth bag to the store,
Refuse the plastic at the door,
For every piece we do not throw,
Is one less pain the rivers know.

Page 22 of 44

Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

The link with this chapter: Otukkam’s fishing net separates fish from water — a
natural kind of filtration. But the net also brings up bags, bottles and wrappers,
because plastic does not dissolve and does not rot. Nature has no separation
method that can take plastic out of a river. The only method that works is not putting
it in.

Q2 A bowl of milk in your home has gone sour. Discuss with your parents how you can
use it in another way. Also, which method of separation will you use in the process?

Sour milk is not waste. In Indian kitchens it is put to work at once.

USE IT FOR WHAT IS DONE METHOD OF
SEPARATION

Paneer or chhena The milk curdles; the solid chhena is poured into a Filtration (through
muslin cloth and the whey drains away cloth)

Butter and buttermilk Set it into curd and churn with a mathni; butter Churning
floats to the top

Kadhi, dhokla, idli batter, Used directly for its sourness No separation needed
sour-milk paratha

Whey for kneading dough or The liquid left after making paneer is kept and Already separated by
watering plants used filtration

The main method here is filtration. Sour milk splits into a solid part (chhena) and
a liquid part (whey). Pouring it through a muslin cloth holds the solid back — the
chhena is the residue, the whey is the filtrate. If instead you set the milk into curd
and churn it, the lighter butter separates and floats, which is churning.

Tip: Squeeze the cloth gently, hang it for half an hour and press the chhena under a
weight. You get fresh paneer — and you have used filtration and decantation
without leaving the kitchen.

Page 23 of 44

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Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
Can you name one kitchen appliance which runs on electricity that is used to
e
Q3

m l as
.co
prepare buttermilk?

a g
se m
g l a
a

An electric mixer–grinder (the mixie), or a purpose-made electric churner / butter-churner

m
(electric mathni). A hand blender does the same job.
. co ag
em
g l as
a
Curd in the mixer jar → the blades churn it rapidly

→ fat globules join together and, being lighter, rise and float as butter

co m
m.
→ the liquid left below is chhach (buttermilk)

m as e
.co a g l
a s emchurning separates butter: the fat in curd is present as countless tiny
gl
Why
a globules spread through the liquid. Churning knocks them together until they form

s
lumps big enough to see. Because fat is less dense than the watery part, these
m a
.co agl
lumps float to the top and can be lifted off.

se m
g l a
a
Did you know? The traditional mathni (or ravi) with a rope wound round it does

m
exactly the same thing without any electricity — and the big wooden churn in the
. co
m
dhaba painting is its village-sized cousin.

m as e
.co a g l
a s em
a gl Q4 Which method of separation did the carpenter use? Recall the chapter ‘Exploring
Magnets’.
se m
com g l a
m . a
ase

agl
He used magnetic separation — moving a magnet through the sawdust so that all the iron
nails jumped up and stuck to it.

co m
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COMPONENT BEHAVIOUR NEAR A MAGNET CALLED

comnails l a
.Iron ag Magnetic substance
sem
Strongly attracted, cling to the magnet

a
agl Sawdust Not attracted at all, stays behind Non-magnetic substance
c
m .
m a s e
e m . co agl
g l as
a

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Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why it beats handpicking here: the carpenter had begun picking the nails out by
hand. But nails buried in sawdust are hard to see and sharp to touch. A magnet finds
every one of them in a single sweep, including the ones out of sight — it uses a
property (difference in magnetic properties) that the eye cannot judge.

Did you know? Recyclers use giant electromagnets fitted to cranes to pull scrap iron
out of heaps of mixed waste. The scrap iron is then melted and used again.

Activity 9.6: Let us play — Pages 175–176
Two baskets — why do we separate substances?

ACTIVITY

Q1 Write the following phrases on small slips of paper — 1. Separating small stones
from pulses. 2. Churning curd to obtain butter. 3. Taking out green chillies from
cooked dalia or poha. 4. Taking out seeds from watermelon. 5. Sorting piles of
sawdust and iron nails from a mixed heap of building material. 6. Picking marigold
flowers from a heap of other flowers to make a garland. 7. Separating pebbles from
sand. 8. Separating coconut pieces from rice flour. 9. Separating oil from water. 10.
Separating salt from salt solution. Now, take two baskets, each representing one of
the two purposes for which we separate substances. Form two teams and see who
will get the maximum correct entries.

The two baskets are labelled:

Basket A — “To remove any one of the components that is not useful.”
Basket B — “To separate two different but useful components.”

Page 25 of 44

Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

# PHRASE BASKET METHOD USED

1 Separating small stones from pulses A — stones are useless and harmful Handpicking

2 Churning curd to obtain butter B — butter and buttermilk are both Churning
used

3 Taking out green chillies from dalia or A — the chilli is removed as unwanted Handpicking
poha

4 Taking out seeds from watermelon A — the seeds are not eaten with the Handpicking
fruit

5 Sorting sawdust and iron nails from B — the nails are reused and the Magnetic
building material sawdust is used too separation

6 Picking marigold flowers from a heap of B — both kinds of flower are useful Handpicking
other flowers

7 Separating pebbles from sand B — sand for plaster, pebbles for Sieving
concrete

8 Separating coconut pieces from rice flour B — both are used in cooking Sieving

9 Separating oil from water B — the oil is recovered and the water Decantation
is reused

10 Separating salt from salt solution B — salt is wanted; water can be Evaporation
recovered too

The idea being tested: we do not separate substances just for fun. There are exactly
two reasons — either to throw out something harmful or useless, or to obtain two
useful things separately. Once you can name the purpose, choosing the method
becomes easy.

Note: a few slips can be argued either way — e.g. watermelon seeds are dried and
eaten as magaz, which would put slip 4 in Basket B. If your team can give the reason,
the answer is acceptable. Say why, not just which.

Play a Game — WISE FISH — Pages 177–178

Page 26 of 44

Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Tank 1: methods · Tank 2: what each one does

PLAY A GAME

Q1 Fish out a red fish representing the method of separation first and then fish out one
blue slip related to the red one. (Tank 1: Filtration, Decantation, Condensation,
Handpicking, Churning, Evaporation, Winnowing, Sedimentation, Sieving,
Threshing, Magnetic separation. Tank 2: difference in magnetic properties;
difference in size of solid particles; heavier particles settle down; mixture of oil and
water; extract butter from curd; separate salt from seawater; beating stalks to
remove grains; conversion of water vapour into its liquid state; insoluble particles
get filtered as residue; larger particles are handpicked; lighter component of
mixture is separated by blowing air.)

Here is the complete pairing of Tank 1 with Tank 2.

TANK 1 — RED FISH (METHOD) TANK 2 — BLUE SLIP

Filtration insoluble particles get filtered as residue

Decantation mixture of oil and water

Condensation conversion of water vapour into its liquid state

Handpicking larger particles are handpicked

Churning extract butter from curd

Evaporation separate salt from seawater

Winnowing lighter component of mixture is separated by blowing air

Sedimentation heavier particles settle down

Sieving difference in size of solid particles

Threshing beating stalks to remove grains

Magnetic separation difference in magnetic properties

Page 27 of 44

Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

How to be sure of a pair: for each method ask “which property does it use?” Sieving
and handpicking both work on solids, but sieving uses size measured by the sieve
while handpicking uses size big enough for fingers. Sedimentation and decantation
are two halves of one job — settling first, pouring off second. Evaporation sends
water away as vapour; condensation brings it back as liquid.

Tip for the game: make the rod from a stick, tie a thread and a small magnet at the
end, and clip the paper fish with iron clips. Notice that the game itself works by
magnetic separation!

Let us enhance our learning — Pages 178–180
Exercise questions 1 to 10

Q1 What purpose does handpicking serve in the process of separation? (i) Filtration (ii)
Sorting (iii) Evaporation (iv) Decantation

Answer: (ii) Sorting

Why: handpicking means picking pieces out of a mixture with the fingers, on the
basis of size, colour and shape. That is exactly what sorting means — arranging or
separating things by looking at them. Removing stones from rice, or chhole from
rajma, is sorting by hand.

Why the others are wrong:

(i) Filtration uses a filter with pores to separate an insoluble solid from a liquid — no hands
involved.
(iii) Evaporation turns a liquid into vapour to recover a dissolved solid.
(iv) Decantation is pouring off a liquid after the solid has settled.

Remember: handpicking is convenient only when the unwanted component is
present in a small quantity and the pieces are big enough to pick up.

Page 28 of 44

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co m
m.
Which of the following substances are commonly separated using the churning
e
Q2

com
method? (i) Oil from water (ii) Sand from water (iii) Cream from milk (iv) Oxygen
from .air g l as
em a
a s
a gl

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Answer: (iii) Cream from milk
. co ag
em
g l as
Why: churning beats the liquid so that the tiny fat globules join into bigger lumps.
a
Since fat is lighter (less dense) than the watery part, the lumps float up and can be
taken off — this is how cream and butter are separated from milk or curd.
co m
se m.
o m
Why the others are wrong:
g l a
c water — the two form separate layers on their own; adecantation
m .from
s e
(i) Oil
achurning.
is used, not

agl (ii) Sand from water — sand is an insoluble solid; sedimentation and decantation, or
m a s
agl
filtration, are used.

m .co
se
(iv) Oxygen from air — air is a mixture of gases; you cannot churn a gas apart.

g l a
a
m
Which factor is usually essential for the filtration? (i) Apparatus size (ii) Presence of
co
Q3
air (iii) Pore size (iv) Temperature of the mixture
m .
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s em

gl a
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Answer: (iii) Pore size

se m
com g l a
. a
Particle bigger than the pore → held back as residue
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Particle smaller than the pore → goes through with the liquid, into the filtrate

. c om
Why: a filter is simply a barrier full of holes. Whether it separates anything depends
entirely on how the size of its pores compares with the size of m
s e the particles. That is

. oma tea strainer cannot clean muddy water but a filter
cwhy a la can — the chapter
gpaper
a s em shows this with the tea strainer, the cloth and the filter paper.
agl c
m .
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Why the others are wrong: the size of the apparatus only decides how much you can filter at
m a s
co agl
a time; air plays no part; and although warm liquid flows a little faster, temperature does not

m .
as
decide whether the particles are stopped.
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Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q4 State with reason(s) whether the following statements are True [T] or False [F]. Also,
correct the False statement(s). (i) Salt can be separated from salt solution by
keeping it under the Sun. (ii) Handpicking should be used only when the quantity of
one component is less. (iii) A mixture of puffed rice and rice grains can be separated
by threshing. (iv) A mixture of mustard oil and lemon water can be separated by
decantation. (v) Sieving is used to separate a mixture of rice flour and water.

STATEMENT T/ REASON
F

(i) Salt can be separated from salt solution True The Sun’s heat makes the water evaporate and the salt is
by keeping it under the Sun. left behind. This is how salt is made from seawater in salt
pans.

(ii) Handpicking should be used only when True If there is a lot of it, picking piece by piece takes far too
the quantity of one component is less. long — as Valli realises about the husk.

(iii) A mixture of puffed rice and rice False Threshing only beats grain off stalks. Puffed rice and rice
grains can be separated by threshing. grains are already loose.

(iv) A mixture of mustard oil and lemon True Oil does not mix with water and is lighter, so it forms a
water can be separated by decantation. clear upper layer that can be poured off.

(v) Sieving is used to separate a mixture of False Sieving works only on a solid–solid mixture. Here one
rice flour and water. component is a liquid.

Corrected false statements:

(iii) A mixture of puffed rice and rice grains can be separated by winnowing (the light puffed
rice is blown away) or by sieving, since the two differ in weight and in size.
(v) Filtration is used to separate a mixture of rice flour and water, because rice flour is
insoluble in water and is held back on the filter.

Tip: before choosing a method, ask two questions — are both components solid? and
does one of them dissolve? The answers rule out most of the wrong methods at once.

Page 30 of 44

Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q5 Match the mixtures in Column I with their method of separation in Column II.
Column I: (i) Gram flour mixed with black gram (ii) Chalk powder mixed with water
(iii) Corn mixed with potatoes (iv) Iron powder mixed with sawdust (v) Oil mixed
with water. Column II: (a) Handpicking (b) Magnetic separation (c) Decantation (d)
Sieving (e) Filtration

COLUMN I COLUMN II PROPERTY USED

(i) Gram flour mixed with (d) Sieving Flour particles are tiny, the gram is large — difference in
black gram particle size

(ii) Chalk powder mixed (e) Filtration Chalk is insoluble in water and is bigger than the pores of
with water the filter

(iii) Corn mixed with (a) Handpicking Both are large and easily told apart by size, colour and
potatoes shape

(iv) Iron powder mixed with (b) Magnetic Iron is attracted to a magnet, sawdust is not — difference
sawdust separation in magnetic property

(v) Oil mixed with water (c) Decantation The two do not mix; oil is lighter and floats as a separate
layer

(i) → (d) · (ii) → (e) · (iii) → (a) · (iv) → (b) · (v) → (c)

Why chalk powder needs filtration and not decantation: chalk does settle if left
alone, so you could decant most of the water. But very fine chalk stays suspended
and clouds the water. Filtration removes it completely — decantation never does.

Q6 In what situations would you use decantation instead of filtration to separate solids
from liquids?

Decantation is chosen when the solid settles by itself and complete separation is not needed.

When the solid is heavy and insoluble and sinks quickly — mud in pond water, tea leaves in
a pan, sand in a bucket.
When there is a large quantity of liquid — filtering a whole drum of muddy water through
paper would take hours; letting it settle and pouring it off takes minutes.

Page 31 of 44

Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

When no filter is available — Dada has no strainer, so he lets the leaves settle and pours
the tea out gently.
When a filter would get choked — a lot of thick mud would clog a filter paper at once, so
the mud is settled and decanted off first, and only then is the water filtered.
When the two components are liquids that do not mix — oil and water, or cream floating
on milk. A filter cannot separate two liquids at all.
When we only want to rinse something — washing rice or dal: the dirt and husk float or
settle and the water is poured away.

The honest limitation: decantation is quick and free, but it is never complete. Fine
particles stay behind in the liquid. When you need the liquid really clear — drinking
water, a chemical in the laboratory — you must filter.

Best practice: in real life the two are used together — sedimentation →
decantation → filtration. That is what Leela does in Question 10, and what a water
treatment plant does on a huge scale.

Q7 Can you relate the presence of nasal hair to any separation process?

Yes — nasal hair works exactly like a filter, so the process is filtration.

Air breathed in = clean air + dust, pollen, smoke particles, tiny insects
The hairs in the nose act as a filter with fine gaps

→ big particles are trapped on the hairs (the residue)

→ cleaner air goes down to the lungs (the filtrate)

Why the body needs it: the lungs are extremely delicate. Dust reaching them would
irritate and damage them. The nasal hairs, helped by the sticky mucus lining, catch
most of the dust right at the entrance. The nose also warms and moistens the air on
the way in.

Do not pluck nasal hair. It is doing a job for you. This is also why we are told to
breathe through the nose, not the mouth — the mouth has no such filter, which is
why dust reaches the throat faster when we run with our mouth open.

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Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q8 During the COVID-19 pandemic, all of us wore masks. Generally, what material are
they made of? What is the role of these masks?

What they are made of:

TYPE OF MASK MATERIAL

Home-made cloth mask Two or three layers of tightly woven cotton or muslin

Surgical (three-ply) mask Three layers of non-woven polypropylene fabric

N95 respirator Several layers of very fine synthetic fibre mesh

The role of the mask — it acts as a filter, in both directions:

Going out: when an infected person coughs, sneezes, speaks or breathes, tiny droplets
carrying the virus are thrown out. The mask traps these droplets so they do not reach other
people.
Coming in: the mask stops droplets, dust and germs from the air outside from reaching
the wearer’s nose and mouth.
It also stops us from touching the nose and mouth with unwashed hands.

Why more layers work better: the pores of one layer do not line up with the pores
of the next, so a droplet that slips past the first is caught by the second or third —
the same reason several layers of cloth filter muddy water better than one, as Malli
learns on page 171.

Did you know? Masks are our own version of nasal hair. Both are filters: they use the
fact that the harmful particles are bigger than the gaps in the material.

Q9 A mixture containing potatoes, salt and sawdust has been given to you. Outline a
stepwise procedure for separating each component from this mixture.

The three components differ in three ways — size, whether they float, and whether they
dissolve. Use one property at each step.

Page 33 of 44

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Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
STEP WHAT TO DO METHOD WHAT YOU GET

m as e
1
. cothan
Pick out the potatoes with your hand — they are much Handpicking
a g l
Potatoes separated

s e m
bigger everything else.
a
a2gl Add plenty of water to the remaining salt + sawdust Dissolving Salt solution with
and stir. The salt dissolves; the sawdust floats on top. sawdust floating

co m
3
em
Skim off the floating sawdust, or pour the mixture. Decantation / Sawdust separated ag
through a filter paper.
g l as Filtration (dry it in the sun)

4
a
Heat the clear salt solution, or keep it in the sun, until Evaporation Salt left behind as a
all the water has gone.
co
white solid
m
e m.
co+msalt + sawdust g l as
. a
em
Potatoes
a s
a gl —[handpicking]→ potatoes + (salt + sawdust)
s
—[add water, filter]→ sawdust + salt solution
m a
m .co agl
se
—[evaporation]→ salt

g l a
a
Why this order: always remove the largest and easiest component first, and add

. c om
water only after that. If you added water at the start, the potatoes would get soggy
m out last,
and the sawdust would stick to them. Also note that salt must beetaken
s
m
co evaporation destroys nothing but does need a clear a
glsolution.
.
because
a
asem
a g l
Remember: a mixture with more than two components almost always needs a
se m
com
combination of methods — that is the hint the book gives at the end of the chapter.
g l a
m . a
ase
agl

co m
m .
m as e
.co a g l
se m
g l a
a c
m .
m a s e
e m . co agl
g l as
a

co m
m .
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Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q10 Read the following story titled ‘Intelligent Leela’ and tick the most appropriate
options. Provide a suitable title of your choice for the paragraph. — Leela was
working in the farm with her father when she realised that they left their drinking
water at home. Before her father felt thirsty/hungry, she went to the nearby pond
to fetch some water/grains. After obtaining some water in the container, she
noticed that the water was muddy and fit/unfit for drinking. To purify the water,
she kept it for some time and then she filtered/churned the muddy water using a
piece of paper/muslin cloth. Leela, then, cooled/boiled the water for about 10
minutes in a covered pan. After cooling/boiling, she filtered/churned it again and
made it fit/unfit for drinking. She served this water to her father while having
food, who blessed her and appreciated her efforts.

The completed paragraph (the correct choice is shown in bold):
Leela was working in the farm with her father when she realised that they left their drinking
water at home. Before her father felt thirsty, she went to the nearby pond to fetch some water.
After obtaining some water in the container, she noticed that the water was muddy and unfit
for drinking. To purify the water, she kept it for some time and then she filtered the muddy
water using a piece of muslin cloth. Leela, then, boiled the water for about 10 minutes in a
covered pan. After boiling, she filtered it again and made it fit for drinking.

CHOICE CORRECT REASON
OPTION

thirsty / hungry thirsty The problem was the forgotten drinking water

water / grains water A pond gives water, not grain

fit / unfit unfit Muddy water is not safe to drink

filtered / churned filtered Churning separates butter from curd; here mud must be strained out

paper / muslin muslin cloth Ordinary paper tears and would not let water through; muslin has
cloth fine pores

cooled / boiled boiled Boiling for about 10 minutes kills the germs

cooling / boiling boiling It follows the previous step

filtered / churned filtered To remove anything settled after boiling

fit / unfit fit The water is now clean and germ-free

Suitable titles you could give: “Leela Makes the Water Safe”, “From a Muddy Pond to a Clean
Glass”, “A Daughter’s Clever Idea”, or “Sedimentation, Filtration, Boiling”.

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Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why Leela is called intelligent: she used three ideas in the right order — she first
let the water stand so the mud settled (sedimentation), then strained it through
cloth (filtration), and finally boiled it, because filtering removes only what is big
enough to be trapped and germs are far smaller than that.

Tip: the pan was kept covered while boiling. That saves water — the steam
condenses on the lid and falls back instead of escaping.

Learning further — Pages 180–181
Projects, play and thinking like a scientist

LEARNING FURTHER

Q1 Fun with parents: We are proud of our Indian heritage. Under supervision of your
elders, try to prepare some herbal remedies using various parts of plants. For
example—tulsi kadha. Which methods of separation will you use while preparing
herbal kadha?

Methods of separation used while making tulsi kadha:

STEP IN MAKING KADHA METHOD OF SEPARATION

Picking healthy tulsi leaves and removing the damaged ones, stalks Handpicking
and dust

Drying herbs, roots or leaves in the shade before storing Evaporation (of the water in
them)

Powdering dry ginger or pepper and sifting out the coarse bits Sieving

Letting the boiled kadha stand so the heavier bits sink Sedimentation

Pouring the clear kadha into a cup, leaving the residue in the pan Decantation

Straining the kadha through a chhanni or a muslin cloth Filtration

The steam that condenses on the lid and drips back Condensation

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Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Sample answer — a simple tulsi kadha (make it with an adult): Boil 1 glass of
water. Add 8–10 washed tulsi leaves, 2 crushed black peppercorns, a small piece of
crushed ginger and 2 crushed cloves. Keep it covered and simmer until it reduces to
about half a glass. Strain it through a tea strainer into a cup, add a little honey or
gud after it has cooled a bit, and drink warm. The main separation method here is
filtration.

Why the herbs are dried in the shade, not in bright sun: as the book’s ‘Do you
know?’ box explains, shade drying lets the excess water evaporate slowly while
keeping the useful part of the medicine intact. Strong sunlight can destroy the
delicate substances in the leaves.

Q2 Stage play: Imagine you and your friend are Malli and Valli. Write dialogues of a
play presenting their entire ‘Bharat ki Yatra’, highlighting the different methods of
separation of substances that they observed. Enact the play in your school
assembly.

What a good script must contain: five scenes for the five halts, each one naming the method,
showing it being done and stating which property it uses; a narrator to move the play along; and
a short closing that says why we separate substances.

SCENE PLACE METHODS TO SHOW

1 Nani’s house, Haryana Handpicking, threshing, winnowing, sieving

2 Sabarmati, Ahmedabad Evaporation (salt from seawater); the Dandi March

3 Dada’s house, Puducherry Sedimentation, decantation, filtration

4 A dhaba in Bhopal Churning

5 Bua’s house, Shillong Magnetic separation

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Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Sample answer — an opening you can build on:

Narrator: Summer holidays, and a family is off on a Bharat ki Yatra. First stop —
Haryana.
Valli: Nani, why is everyone picking through the grain?
Nani: We are taking out the small stones, beta, so the grain is fit for cooking. We do
it by hand — that is handpicking.
Malli: But the husk is so much more than the stones! Will you pick all of that by hand
too?
Mama (laughing): No. For that we call the wind. (He lifts a soop and lets the grain fall.)
Valli: Look! The grain drops straight down and the husk flies off!
Mama: Because the husk is lighter. That is winnowing.
Narrator: One property, one method. Now to Ahmedabad …

Tip for the performance: use real props — a soop, a chalni, a tea strainer, a magnet
and a bowl of sawdust with nails. The audience believes what it can see happening,
and the science is remembered far longer.

Q3 Group activity: Observe and list separation methods you employed and noticed in
your surroundings throughout a week. Explain the reasons behind using these
methods and compile the ones you utilised or observed the most. Compare your
observations with your group members.

How to do it properly: keep a small diary for seven days. Each time you see a mixture being
separated, write down four things — where, what was separated, which method, and why that
method was chosen. Then count how often each method appears.

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Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

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Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Questions worth asking:

What kinds of waste do you collect and separate?
How do you decide which pile a thing belongs to?
Do you use any tool — a magnet, a sieve, a hook, gloves?
Which is the hardest material to separate, and why?
What happens to each pile after you sell it?
What difficulties do you face in this work?

WASTE SORTED SEPARATED ON THE BASIS OF METHOD

Paper, plastic, glass, cloth Appearance and feel of the material Handpicking (sorting)

Iron and steel scrap Attraction to a magnet Magnetic separation

Aluminium cans vs iron cans Only iron sticks to the magnet Magnetic separation

Plastic bottles vs sand and grit Plastic floats in water, grit sinks Decantation / flotation

Fine dust from mixed waste Particle size Sieving

What the case study should conclude: ragpickers do skilled separation work every
day, mostly by handpicking, and their work is the first step of recycling. It keeps
enormous quantities of material out of landfills. They deserve safety equipment —
gloves, shoes and masks — and respect.

The second half of the task matters as much: find out whether any child in the
family is out of school, tell the parents about the nearest government school, mid-
day meal and free books, and inform your class teacher. Education for every child
under 14 is a right under the Right to Education Act.

Q5 Be a reporter: (i) Gather newspaper clippings and articles related to various
methods of separation implemented in your society, such as in agricultural fields or
at construction sites. (ii) Conduct interviews with local farmers to explore the latest
agricultural separation methods that they use.

(i) Making the clippings file. Keep a scrapbook with four sections — Farming, Construction,
Water and Waste and recycling. Paste each clipping and write under it: the date, the method of
separation involved and the property it uses.

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Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

KIND OF NEWS ITEM SEPARATION YOU WILL SPOT

Harvest reports, combine harvesters, mandi photos Threshing and winnowing

Sand screening, ready-mix concrete plants Sieving

Water treatment plants, filter distributions after a flood Sedimentation, filtration

Salt production in Gujarat or Tamil Nadu Evaporation

Waste segregation drives, scrap yards with crane magnets Handpicking, magnetic separation

Oil spill clean-up at sea Decantation / skimming

(ii) Interviewing a farmer — questions to ask:

How was the crop threshed when you were young, and how is it done now?
Do you use a thresher or a combine harvester? Is it owned, hired or shared?
Does the machine do winnowing as well? What is done with the husk?
How are the grains graded and cleaned before they go to the mandi?
How are seeds separated and sorted for the next sowing?
Which is faster and which is cheaper — the old way or the machine?

What you will learn: the principle has not changed at all — a thresher still beats the
crop, and it still blows air through the falling grain. Only the muscle has changed,
from a wooden log and the wind to a diesel engine and a fan. A combine harvester
cuts, threshes and winnows in one pass across the field.

Q6 Think like a scientist: You are provided with a mixture of iron nails, sand, black
pepper, stones, common salt and water. Which steps will you follow to separate
each component of a mixture?

Six components — so use one property at a time, and always take out the easiest first. Here is
the full sequence.

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Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

STEP WHAT TO DO METHOD COMPONENT
OBTAINED

1 Move a magnet over the mixture. The nails cling to it. Magnetic Iron nails
separation

2 Pick out the stones and the black pepper by hand — Handpicking Stones and black
both are large and easy to tell apart by colour and pepper
shape.

3 Stir what is left. The salt dissolves in the water; the Sedimentation Sand settled; salt in
sand does not and settles at the bottom. solution

4 Pour off the clear salt solution, then pass it through a Decantation and Sand (as residue)
filter paper to catch every last grain of sand. Dry the filtration
sand.

5 Heat the filtrate (or leave it in the sun) so that the water Evaporation Common salt
leaves as vapour.

6 To keep the water as well, cool the vapour on a cold Condensation Water
surface so that it turns back into liquid. (distillation)

Mixture

—[magnet]→ iron nails

—[handpicking]→ stones, black pepper

—[settle + filter]→ sand

—[evaporate]→ salt —[condense the vapour]→ water

Why this order and not any other:

The magnet goes first because it picks out iron and nothing else, and sharp nails
are best removed before you put your fingers in.
Handpicking comes next because stones and pepper are the biggest things left;
taking them out early makes everything after it easier.
Only then do we use water as a tool, because it makes use of the one property
left — salt dissolves, sand does not.
Evaporation must come last, since it needs a clear solution with nothing else
floating in it.

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Class 6 Science Chapter 9 Methods of Separation in Everyday Life AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Reflection steps — fill these in your own words: “I observe that this mixture has
solids of very different sizes, one metal, and one solid that vanishes in water. I wonder
whether I can use water itself as a way of separating them.” The book’s hint is the key
idea: a mixture of more than two components needs a combination of separation
methods.

Chapter at a glance
The chapter travels with Malli and Valli across India — Haryana, Ahmedabad, Puducherry,
Bhopal and Shillong — and at every halt they meet one more way of separating a mixture
(two or more substances mixed together).
Solid–solid mixtures are separated by handpicking (difference in size, colour and shape),
threshing (beating stalks to free the grain), winnowing (difference in weight, using wind)
and sieving (difference in particle size).
Solid–liquid mixtures are separated by sedimentation (heavier insoluble particles settle),
decantation (the liquid is gently poured off) and filtration (the liquid passes through fine
pores, the solid stays back as residue and the liquid collected is the filtrate).
A dissolved solid cannot be filtered out. It is recovered by evaporation — as in the salt pans
by the sea. If the vapour is cooled it turns back to liquid; this is condensation, and
evaporation followed by condensation gives back both the salt and the water.
Two more methods appear at the end: churning, which separates lighter butter from curd,
and magnetic separation, which pulls iron out of a heap using a magnet.
We separate substances for exactly two reasons — to remove a component that is not
useful (stones from dal, husk from grain) or to obtain two different but useful
components (butter and buttermilk, salt and water).

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