A student sets up a distillation apparatus to separate a homogeneous mixture of liquid acetone (boiling point 56 °C) and water (boiling point 100 °C). During the experiment, the student observes that the thermometer reading stays constant at around 56 °C for an extended period while liquid drops accumulate in the collection flask. Which of the following best explains why the temperature remains steady and identifies the primary substance being collected at this stage?

A) The mixture has completely finished boiling, so water is condensing without absorbing any heat.

B) Both liquids are evaporating at identical rates, so a chemically neutral compound is accumulating.

C) Thermal energy is no longer entering the distillation flask, so pure liquid water is collected first.

D) Thermal energy is consumed to overcome intermolecular forces during phase change, so acetone vaporizes and condenses first.

Distillation Transitional Reasoning Download PDF

Chemistry · Matter · Chemistry · Separation of Mixtures

1 Chemistry practice questions on Distillation. Questions that build towards applied reasoning.

Matter · Chemistry

Choose a topic and keep learning.