Question

As you are cleaning out the shared refrigerator in the kitchen of your apartment at the end of the school year, you find an unlabeled, clear plastic container in the back, left there by one of your roommates. This container is half-filled with something that you notice has separated into two layers: the top one is a dark yellow color, the bottom layer is more greenish. You assume that this biphasic mixture has an aqueous layer and some type of organic layer. Without tasting, smelling, or removing either layer from the container, how can you determine which layer is the aqueous layer using just material found in a typical kitchen

Answer 1

Answer:

See explanation

Explanation:

The organic layer is always found at the top of the mixture while the aqueous layer is found at the bottom of the mixture.

Therefore, if I use any piece of rod and an empty container found in the kitchen to perform a simple decantation, the top layer that comes out first is the organic layer. The other layer that remains after the top layer has been successfully decanted is the aqueous layer.