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Food Science 10



Name: Anon Durongpisitkul
Unit 1: The Food Science Lab
September 2015
Laboratory Experiment #2: Measuring the Volume of a Liquid

Class: __1003___

Introduction: Using the proper equipment for experiments in the food science laboratory makes tasks easier and results
more accurate and precise. Liquid volumes can be measured using a beaker, graduated cylinder, or a buret. Science
requires definite measurements. In order to obtain meaningful experimental results and to develop a procedure that can
be duplicated, measurements must be both accurate and precise. In this experiment youll compare the degree of accuracy
allowed by these pieces of equipment.
Purpose: To be familiar with, and learn how to read the different equipments used for measuring the volume of a liquid.

Materials:
Water



100-mL graduated cylinder

Clamp
100-mL beaker


50-mL buret


Dropper
10-mL graduated cylinder
Ring stand



50-mL graduated cylinder
Procedure:
1. Read the volume of liquid in the beaker, graduated cylinder, and the two burets at the station.
2. Record your readings in your data table. Remember to read from the meniscus if there is one.
3. Using the graduations on the side of the 100-mL beaker, add exactly 45 mL of water to the beaker.
4. Without spilling any, pour this water into your 50-mL graduated cylinder and read the volume to the nearest 0.1 mL.
Record in your data table. Empty the graduated cylinder
5. Using the graduations on the side of the beaker, add exactly 7 mL of water to the beaker. Pour this water into your
10-mL graduated cylinder and read the volume to the nearest 0.01 mL. Record in your data table. Empty the graduated
cylinder.
6. Look at your buret eye level. Release water until the buret reads 0.00 mL. Discard the extra water.
7. Release exactly 22.00 mL of water from the buret into the 100-mL beaker. Transfer this amount into a 50-mL graduated
cylinder. Read the volume as precisely as you can and record in your data table.
8. Release 6.55 mL of water from the same buret into the 100-mL beaker. Transfer this amount into a 10-mL graduated
cylinder. Read and record this amount as accurately as possible in your data table.
Data Table #1:
Title:_Read How Much this Is
Equipment

Volume (mL)

1. 100-mL beaker
2. 100-mL glass graduated cylinder

25 mL
70.5 mL

3. 100-mL plastic graduated cylinder

4. 50-mL buret #1

60 mL
17.8 mL

5. 50-mL buret #2

14.2 mL

Data Table #2:
Title: Water Transferring Accuracy
Amount of Water

50-mL Graduated Cylinder

10-mL Graduated Cylinder

45 mL from beaker

43.5 mL

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

7 mL from beaker

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

6.25 mL

22 mL from buret

22.45 mL

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

6.55 mL from buret

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

6.60 mL



Discussion (Analyzing Results):
1. Based on the reading from your graduated cylinder, is a beaker suitable for measuring 45 mL of water?
No, I dont think that it would be accurate enough to read 45 mL of water from a beaker accurately. The beaker does not
have enough graduations that you would be able to precisely measure 45 mL, for a 100 mL beaker; there are only
graduations for every 20 mL, which is hard to read between 40 and 60. As I have gotten 43.5 mL because I had to quarter a
space by eyeballing it, meaning I have to find the half line where the 50 is and then find the halfway point between the 40
and the 50 line while having only one line for reference and the other one is imaginary. It also is very hard to achieve
PRECISE measurements due to the lot of estimating we have to make.


2. Based on the reading from your graduated cylinder, is a beaker suitable for measuring 7 mL of water?
No, I dont think a beaker is suitable for measuring 7 mL of water. Measuring such a small amount of water is next to
impossible without detailed graduations. Pouring such little amounts of water in is also hard even with precise tools such as
an eyedropper. I got 6.25, but then in a 100-mL beaker, 6.25 dont really fill it up that much. I would even say that some of
my eyeballing is disturbed by the fact that theres air bubbles in the beaker too. In light of that, I might have poured less
than 7 mL, but the air pushed it up. Finally, the beaker is again not well graduated; so finding half of a half is very hard. It
also is very hard to achieve PRECISE measurements due to the lot of estimating we have to make.

3. When, if ever, would you use a beaker to measure volume of a liquid in an experiment?
The only time I could think of ever doing so would be when we have a none-chemical experiment that doesnt require
precise measurements. Where a 0.00001 error wouldnt cause a chemical reaction. Also because we have to do a whole lot
of eyeballing without having referrals marks, which makes accuracy and precision very hard to achieve. It also is very hard
to achieve PRECISE measurements due to the lot of estimating we have to make.

4. Which cylinder (50-mL or 10-mL) or buret measured more accurately? Explain in detail.
The buret measured it more accurately than both cylinders because it had markings every 0.1 mL, then we had to estimate
the 0.01 mL digit. But with a cylinder, it had accurate markings every 1 or 2 mL, and then you had to estimate the 0.1 mL
digit. For example, when we want to release 6.55 mL from a buret, we could slow the rate down to a trickle towards the
end of your releasing, thus allowing you to stop very precisely on the desired measurement as compared to the cylinder
where you cant really slow pouring down. That is why I got 6.6 from the given 6.55 mL when released it from a buret, as
compared to 43.5 from the given 45 mL with cylinder.

5. Would you use beakers and graduated cylinders to measure other volumes, such as the volume of sand or oil? Why or
Why not?
Oil possibly, Oil is easy, because its liquid. And you could use beakers and graduated cylinders with oil. With sand, its a lttle
bit tougher. Since all things takes up space, you could use a certain amount of water in a beaker, dissolve the sand in the
water, than see how much the water increase and you would get the volume of sand.

Conclusion:
In this experiment, we tested to see whether a buret, a beaker, or a graduated cylinder is more accurate. We learned that a
buret is the most accurate tool to use to measure a liquid substance. There were also some factors that might cause errors
though, such as the reading between the graduations, which could be off because we had no clear markings to read exactly
from. Also it is very hard to be precise, because there might already be moisture and air on the tools which might throw the
exact amount of water we poured into the tool off.