How does simple distillation separate a liquid from a solution?

Simple distillation separates a liquid from a solution through the process of evaporation followed by condensation. When the mixture is heated, the component with the lower boiling point (often the solvent) evaporates first. As the vapor rises, it passes into a condenser, where it cools and changes back into a liquid. This condensed liquid, now called the distillate, is collected in a separate container. This method effectively separates the liquid from dissolved solids or other liquids in the solution based on differences in boiling points, making it a useful technique for purifying substances or recovering solvents.

The other options do not accurately describe the process of simple distillation. For instance, filtering would not achieve the separation of a liquid and a dissolved solute; instead, it physically removes solids from liquids. Lowering the boiling point of the liquid does not occur during distillation, as it relies on inherent vaporization properties. Finally, cooling the liquid to form a solid does not reflect what happens in distillation, as this would refer more to crystallization than to the separation of components based on boiling points.