BAROMETRIC

Barometer

- a device used to measure atmospheric

pressure.
- It can be used to predict weather condition.
- Atmospheric pressure is important in the
physicochemical properties of a pharmaceutical
product. This is why it is important and essential
in physical pharmacy.

Different Kinds of Barometer

Barometer Reading
 Mercury Barometer (Fortin Barometer)
 Digital Barometer - Atmospheric pressure is read either in metric
 Aneroid Barometer system or English of measure.
- English system of measure having a unit of
Mercury Barometer (Fortin Barometer)
inches in mercury (in Hg) is shown on the left
- Usually found in the laboratory side of the equipment with a calibration of 25-
31 in Hg
Parts of Mercury Barometer - Metric system with the unit of centimeter
mercury is shown on the right side with a
1. Scale
calibration of 63.5 – 78.8 cmHg
a. Vernier scale
- Air pressure/Atmospheric Pressure
- Movable scale
b. Main scale
- Fixed scale
- May be expressed in English
(inches Hg) or in Metric (cm Hg)

2. Barometer Tube
3. Cistern – a tank of reservoir of mercury

Zeroing Barometer

Before you start using the barometer, be sure that you

zero the barometer focusing on the right zero pointer in
the Cistern or reservoir of mercury.
 - In order to zero the barometer, the cistern is
adjusted or the cistern adjusting screw is turned
up until the mercury is just touching the zero
pointer tip.
Adjusting the Movable Vernier
- After zeroing, we are going to move the
adjustable Vernier upward or downward exactly
on the top of the meniscus of mercury
Reading the Vernier Scale
- In reading the Vernier caliper, there are four
conditions that you have to check:
o Line of sight – it should be eye level.
o Mercury meniscus – Vernier should be
exactly at the top of the meniscus
o Front Vernier edge – the alignment of
the front
o Back Vernier edge – consider also the
alignment of the back Vernier edge
Reading the atmospheric pressure from Barometer
- Once the barometer has been zeroed and set,
the measurement can be taken.
- Focus reading the atmospheric pressure from
the metric system scale first followed by the
bottom most line of the Vernier scale which
serves as the main pointer of the main scale or
the fixed scale.
- As you can see, the pointer is exactly aligned to
66. Therefore, the reading is 66.0 cmHg
Summary on How to use a Barometer
However, if the pointer levels exactly to the line of the
main scale, the reading gives you the first three
Another example: (expressed in mm of mercury)
- Assuming that the zeroing of barometer is
done, and we are ready to take the
measurement.
- First, look at the bottom of the Vernier scale.
From this we can take first significant figure
from the main scale.
- As you can see, the lower part is 700mmHg and
the upper part is 800mmHg
- Focus on the line wherein the pointer of the
Vernier is not exactly pointing any line in the
main scale. (between 745 and 746 mmHg)
- So, if you’re going to count it, it’s 700 and then
you will see now 40 and 50 so we have to count
the increment. It becomes now 745.
- Check the alignment of the Vernier scale which
line coincides exactly at the same line of the
main scale. The reading now is 745.4 mmHg
1. Zeroing the barometer
2. Adjust the Vernier scale exactly on the top of
the mercury meniscus.
3. The bottom most line or zero point of Vernier
serves as the pointer.
4. The pointer tells you the reading of the
atmospheric pressure.
significant figures which is obtained directly from the
main scale.
However, if it is not aligned with the line of the main
scale, the fourth significant figure can be obtained from
the Vernier scale which is the first line from the Vernier
scale that is exactly the same level with any line from
the main scale.
ACTIVITY 1: SPECIFIC GRAVITY DETERMINATION OF
LIQUIDS
Specific Gravity
- Specific gravity in liquid is said to be the ratio of
the weight of a substance to the weight of an
equal volume of a standard
- Weight of a substance is any substance or liquid
and unit is in grams divided by the equal
volume of the standard.
- The standard usually used is water
- Milliliter is converted to weight.
- No unit (when you cancel the weight in grams
over the weight in gram of the denominator)
Specific gravity based on USP NF
- Applicable only to liquids
- Always at 25°C unless specified in individual
monograph
- Standard to be used is water at same
temperature
- Ratio of weight of liquid in air at 25°C to an
equal volume of water at same temp
- If in case that the temperature is not indicated,
it is assumed that it is always 25°C
- However, for alcohol, the temperature that
should be used is at 15.56°C
- When solid, sample should be melted at
temperature directed in individual monograph
and refer to water at 25°C
- Unless indicated, the method that will be used
is the method I or what we call the pycnometer
method
Official methods (as shown in USP NF)
 Pycnometer method – displacement principle
(Method I)
 Oscillating transducer density meter – (Method
II)
- A U-shaped tube, usually of borosilicate
glass, which contains the liquid to be
examined.
- The example of a tuning fork shows that
by applying a mechanical impulse, one
can generate a sound with a
characteristic pitch. This sound is the
result of the oscillation created by
deflecting the front of tuning fork. A
determining factor in the pitch of the
note obtained and thus creating
frequency is the mass of the tuning fork.
Digital density measurement puts this
relationship to use.
- By means of this U tube oscillation
principle, the extremely fine particles are
made to oscillate by a magnetic
transducer with a characteristic
frequency. Then, the resulting resonant
frequency of the U tube will depend on
the mass of the field sample.
- This frequency can be measured very
accurately and used to calculate the
density of the sample.
- Thus, the physical relationship of
oscillation frequency, the reciprocal of
the oscillation to the density is simple
and is linear.
Other Unofficial Methods
Solids
 Hydrostatic Balance method
 Graduated Cylinder method
 Immersion of solid in a transparent liquid of the
same density
Liquids
 Flotation method – uses Archimedes principle
using hydrometers and mohr- westphal balance
 Manometric Method – Fisher-Davidson
Gravitometer
Method 1: Pycnometer Method 4. Clean and dry the pycnometer
5. Weigh the empty pycnometer. This is the
- Specific gravity bottle weight of the pycnometer in grams (33.9633g)
- Most accurate method of determination of the 6. Fill this pycnometer using most volatile sample
specific gravity of liquids
first.
- Water at 25°C (Standard) 7. Fill the pycnometer with the sample up to its
Two types of pycnometer neck (Need to overflow to prevent airbubbles)
8. Cover the pycnometer with thermometer and
 Ordinary pycnometer – no built in its cap
thermometer 9. Wipe the excess fluid on the sides of the
 Leach pycnometer – quite expensive because of pycnometer before weighing.
the built in thermometer 10. Weigh pycnometer with standard (water)
11. Repeat procedure with sample liquid
Video regarding specific gravity 12. After weighing the filled pycnometer with
Materials used: sample and standard liquids consecutively,
these data were obtained.
- Leach pycnometer 54.1888g – weight of pycnometer with acetone
- Analytical Balance 53.4774g – weight of pycnometer with ethanol
- Distilled water 58.6931g - weight of pycnometer with distilled
- Acetone water
- Ethanol 13. From the data obtained, determine the specific
gravity of ethanol and acetone.
Procedure
Formula
1. Prepare your worksheet in PDF format
spgr= weight of sample/ weight of standard

weight of sample = weight of sample & pycnometer

– weight of empty pycnometer
2. Read and record weight of standard = weight of standard
the measurement &pycnometer – weight of empty pycnometer
of atmospheric
pressure from this
picture in mmHg

3. Read and record

the temperature from this
picture