What is a graduated cylinder ? How is it used in a laboratory to measure volume ?

Graduated Cylinder :

A graduated cylinder, measuring cylinder or mixing cylinder is a common piece of laboratory equipment used to measure the volume of a liquid. It has a narrow cylindrical shape. Each marked line on the graduated cylinder represents the amount of liquid that has been measured.

Graduated Cylinder Size

It depends on whether you are trying to measure the volume of a solid object or of a liquid. For both materials, the basic idea is that the volume or volume change within the cylinder is correlated with the motion of the top surface of the liquid. To measure a liquids volume, find the nearest tick to the top surface of the liquid,also known as the "meniscus", and record thee value next to the tick. This value is the volume of the liquid in the cylinder. To measure the volume of solid objects, you will need to

1. Measure the volume of the initial liquid, via the tick marks on the cylinder.
2. Place the object in the liquid, ensuring that the object is completely submerged.
3. Measure the volume of the liquid/solid combination, via the ticks on the cylinder.
4. Subtract the volume of the initial liquid from the volume of the liquid/solid combination.

And Voila! The subtracted value is the volume of the solid object.

One final point to note is that the meniscus will not normally look like a straight line, but rather as depicted below. To get a correct volume value, take the measurement from the apparent center of the meniscus, as shown in the figure.