Re: what advantage is there to making graduated cylinders tall and thin rather

The reason that graduated cylinders are thin and tall is for greater 
accuracy at smaller volumes.  If the cylinder was short and fat then the 
volume marks on the glass would be very close together and difficult to 
read for smaller volumes.  By lengthening the height of the cylinder and 
decreasing the diameter you can see the volume marks more easily, thereby 
increasing the accuracy of your measurments.  
     You can try an experiment to prove that this is true.  Get two 100 ml 
graduated cylinders and a 100 ml beaker in your science lab.  Start out by 
making very big measurements (100 ml and 50 ml) in both the beaker and 
cylinder #1.  Then transfer the water from the beaker into cylinder #2 to 
measure the volume.  Pour out the water from cylinder #2 after the 
measurement.  Then pour in the water from cylinder #1 into cylinder #2 and 
measure the volume.  Measure the cylinder volumes to 2 places, example 52, 
then record the readings on a piece of paper.  Repeat this process by 
decreasing the measured volumes to 40ml, then 30 ml, then 20 ml, and 
finally down to 10 ml.  Are the measurements less accurate?  Then try 
measuring volumes that are in between the whole numbers, like 34 ml and 68 
ml.  You can compare the accuracy of the volume measurements by 
calculating per cent difference: [(theoretical measurement - experimental 
measurement) divided by theoretical measurement].  The theoretical 
measurement is the volume that you are trying to measure, the experimental 
result is the actual volume measurement taken from the graduated 
cylinder.  If the result is negative then drop the minus sign.  The bigger 
the number, the higher the error.  Is it easier and more accurate to make 
the measurements in the graduated cylinder or the beaker?  If you continue 
asking probing analytical questions like this one, then you should be a 
terrific analytical chemist someday!!!