Measuring small amounts of liquid

xerampelinae deicida

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Measuring small amounts of liquid

« on: 12 September 2007, 01:35:17 »

I'm thinking we need to refine our liquid measurement on the small end the plant I'm working on I'm creating to different liquids 1 is a highly viscous material the other is a very thick liquid so a drop from the first would be the same size as several thousand drops of the 2nd .


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Miraran Tehuriden

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Re: Measuring small amounts of liquid

« Reply #1 on: 12 September 2007, 02:24:22 »

More Brownie-invented measurements then? They probably use them in everyday's life anyway..


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Avrah Kehabhra

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xerampelinae deicida

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Re: Measuring small amounts of liquid

« Reply #2 on: 12 September 2007, 07:03:32 »

That makes sense I'll ask Bard Judith about adding to the measures.


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Bard Judith

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Re: Measuring small amounts of liquid

« Reply #3 on: 13 September 2007, 06:44:58 »

Doesn't 'viscous' mean the SAME as 'thick'?

That aside, why do we need smaller or more precise measurements in a culture which doesn't use them or have the technology to measure them more precisely?

Most people are happy with 'sips' and 'tots'. If you need something smaller, such as a medicine dose for a child, you could add 'thimble' or 'acorncap', both quite intuitive volumes.

After that you generally would measure in 'drops' - which vary by the viscosity, yes - but you would be using water as your 'standard' against which an average 'drop' would be measured. Brownies could indeed split things up into smaller volumes, but why on earth - er, I mean, why on Caelereth - would humans then need or use those measurements?

If you are doing alchemical experiments, you would simply 'scale up' to the smallest amount needed/measurable and then proportion the rest of your reagents to that.
Give me a convincing rationale and I might be argued into creating smaller divisions, mind you, but I can't see medieval humans using them on a daily basis.

Sorry to take so long to answer!


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xerampelinae deicida

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Re: Measuring small amounts of liquid

« Reply #4 on: 13 September 2007, 12:03:50 »

ya I should of said one is viscous the other is very thin.

The most common use for smaller measurements would be cooking.

I'm assuming a sip is about an ounce

The most common use for smaller units on Caelereth would be the same as for smaller units on earth cooking

2 tablespoons = 1 ounce
3 teaspoons = tablespoon
most measuring spoon sets have 1/4 teaspoons 1/24 of an ounce

brownies would of course use smaller measurements in cooking

A merchant would find smaller measurements useful too if he acquired a very potent substance which could be diluted heavily rather then carry several barrels of mixture he would mix the diluted form as needed

If your supply of materials is limited then scaling up is impractical or impossible. say the experiment is from something difficult to acquire such as a rare plant animal or mineral or dangerous to acquire such as dragon blood.

take for example a king that wants to conquer all of Caelereth he wants his army to have mithril weapons and armor so he hires someone to figure out how mithril is made an experiment which would require some mithril. since the supply he would have is very limited the experiment would be scaled down from what would be used for iron or even gold.

I have used equipment in introductory level college chemistry classes that can measure microliters (about .0295 ounces) I would think a skilled chemist would have at least as good of equipment on Caelereth. He would want to use small amounts so he can do more experiments.

My need for them is I'm creating a powerful narcotic that is produced by my plant to subdue prey

As for who would make measurers extremely precise the gnomes which have an intrest in chemistry and skilled glass blowers would be the leading contenders followed by brownies cus they can make small things and the Anpagans might make a thin glass tube making machine and make them thinner and thinner sort of a my machine is better then yours thing, then later figure out the tubes could be used to measure things

As for what you would call these units I like your ideas. I was looking at names of some different measuring units the other night looking for ideas and noticed hogshead and thought miceshead would work well for something smaller


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Measuring small amounts of liquid