Sunday, October 16, 2011

Laboratory Glassware: Beakers

Let’s start with one of the most common materials found on the Lab, a Beaker.

Beakers_Lab CHARACTERISTICS

A beaker is a cylindrical glass container, most have a small spout to help pouring. They can be found in many sizes.
The most common have 250 mL. of capacity, and as i said they are made of glass, mostly borosilicate glass (also called Pyrex), this material is very resistant to heat and makes it perfect for boiling substances.

Beaker_Chem
Besides the common capacity these Beakers can be found in capacities like: 50, 100, 150, 500, 1000 and 2000 mL. Every glassware on the lab has specifications on the side, such as Temperature of calibration.

USES

These beakers have many purposes and can be used for mixing, stirring, measuring or boiling substances.
Although its not recommended to use it to measure substances, because the student can incur in mistakes in this procedure and its better to use a Graduated Cylinder. This beakers have a rough scale that can go from 0-50-100 or bigger ranges, making them not practical for measurement procedures.

beakers
 Be careful when boiling or heating, as i said be sure the Beaker is made of Borosilicate glass; one of the most common reasons for this material to break is the mistake of laying the Hot Beaker on a Cold surface such as the tiles on the lab.
 
More Laboratory Glassware 

8 comments:

Liaata said...

reminds me of my chemistry class :D had to work this all out, now im about to forget it cos my study has nothing to do with chemistry

Anonymous said...

Very useful information! (:

This Guy said...

Never had that problem.. Never seen anyone else either.

Unknown said...

I've seen beakers break all the time in my classes at both high school and college. It is amazing just how much a teacher can leave that piece of info out.

Vague Raconteur said...

I've broken far too many beakers by heating. And thermometers. And clothes.

Anonymous said...

lol me too broken a ton of these things and my teacher is always like you have to pay for those and im all like i aint paying for nothing hahah

Foxzero said...

haha god i wonder if there is really no one that hasnt broken one of these XD

Levitsky hawlk said...

Hello,

You have provided a very good site to knowing about Laboratory Glassware. It is many types and each glass has it's own special function, which include volumetric measuring holding or storing chemicals mixing or preparing solutions. The glassware is now mass-produced, but many large laboratories employ a glass blower to construct specialized pieces. Thanks...

Glass Flasks

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