Reading a meniscus sim
Liquid in a narrow tube curves: water's meniscus curves down, so read its bottom; mercury's curves up, so read its top.
Reading a meniscus · covers the GCSE, IGCSE, O-Level topic
What the sim shows
Liquid in a narrow tube curves: water's meniscus curves down, so read its bottom; mercury's curves up, so read its top. The scale is on the front of the glass and the liquid is behind it, so the line of sight from your eye to the meniscus crosses the scale at the right mark only when your eye is level with the meniscus. Eye too high: the reading is too large. Eye too low: too small. Stand the cylinder upright on the bench and bring your eye down to the level of the meniscus. A measuring cylinder reads to the nearest 0.5 cm³. The cylinder holds 64.5 cm³.
- Line of sight from the eye
- Right: side-on close-up, 6 px per mm
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