Ace the 2025 Ohio Educators Science Test – Spark Your Teaching Journey with Middle Grades Magic!

The primary function of a centrifuge is to separate components of a heterogeneous mixture based on their different densities. When a mixture is placed in the centrifuge and spun at high speeds, the centrifugal force causes the denser materials to move outward to the bottom of the tube, while the less dense materials rise toward the top. This process enables scientists and researchers to effectively isolate specific components, such as cells from blood or precipitates from a liquid, making centrifugation a crucial technique in many scientific fields including biology and chemistry.

In the context of the other choices, measuring light absorption involves using spectrophotometers, which assess how much light a substance absorbs at specific wavelengths but does not involve separation processes. Analyzing chemical reactions involves techniques like titration or spectroscopy but does not relate to the physical separation of materials. Chromatography is a separate method used to separate mixtures based on differential affinities of various components to stationary and mobile phases, which is distinct from the separation mechanism employed by a centrifuge.