A graduated cylinder is used to measure volume of a liquid. If we examine a 10 mL graduated cylinder, such as the one that is shown on the left, we see that the cylinder has markings along the side. The illustration below shows that the finest divisions on this graduated cylinder is 0.1 milliliter.
When reading a graduated cylinder, we read the bottom of the meniscus.
This is the lens-shaped surface of the liquid. As well, we always bring
our eyes to the same level of the meniscus when we take a reading. When
determining the volume of liquid, we can always estimate to half a division.
For this graduated cylinder, half a division is 0.05 mL. Therefore, the
volume measurement using this graduated cylinder has an uncertainty of
+/- 0.05 mL. This means that volumes determined using this graduated cylinder
can be recorded, at best, to 2 decimal places.
