Our lab procedure says to measure the mass of a metal by placing a beaker on the balance, taring it, then adding the metal. Why not just put the metal on the balance? Please be thourough with the answer. I am serious.
There are some reasons we avoid
- We want to avoid direct contact of metal with the metallic plate in the balance
- If the metal is "dusty" or may lose any kind of particles, we will have to account for it, which is hard to do. If we have a container for this, the particles/dust will not be lost ( mass ) which then we will be used in the stoichiometric/gravimetric calculations.
- While "taring" the value, we will get rid of the "noise" in the beaker; whereas as not taring it; we will need to account for the specific mass of the beaker; which is hard to get for 0.001+ units.
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