What is a Beaker Used for In Science? The Scientific method requires that experiments be tested in carefully documented, controlled, and reproducible experiments, which is especially true when doing chemistry. Chemicals must oftentimes be mixed, measured, and stored and beakers help to accomplish this . Beakers can do this because they are made of glass , are graduated , and have a spout. Science Needs Precise Measurement One must remember that measurement is integral to the scientific method. You can not quantify an observation unless you can measure it. For this, beakers are graduated. Graduated beakers are marked with measuring lines on one side of the beaker to help measure a volume of liquid. A 250 mL beaker for example might be marked by 50, 100, 150, 200, and 250ml lines. Graduated beakers, however, only give estimations of the volume and are normally accurate only to within 10% of the measurement. When more precision is needed, a graduated cylinder might be used instead. S
