Baumé scale

Have you ever seen a tube with lines on it that has some liquid in it? This is called a baumé hydrometer. It can tell you how heavy or light the liquid is. When we talk about how light or heavy a liquid is, we mean its density. Density is how much stuff is packed into a certain space. Water is a good example of a liquid with a moderate density.

Nowadays, we have instruments that can measure the densities of liquids very accurately, but baumé hydrometers are still used in some places. They work like this. The tube has a weight at the bottom to make it stand up straight in the liquid. On the tube, there are lines that show how high the liquid goes up in the tube.

If you put the hydrometer in water, the line will show that the water goes up to a certain level in the tube. If you put it in a liquid that is denser than water, like syrup, the liquid will go up higher in the tube. If you put it in a liquid that is lighter than water, like alcohol, the liquid will go up lower in the tube.

The baumé scale is a way of comparing the density of different liquids. It was created by a French guy named Antoine Baumé. He made a special formula to calculate where the line in the tube should be for different liquids. When you buy a baumé hydrometer, it will usually come with a chart that tells you what different readings mean for different liquids.

The higher the number on the baumé scale, the denser the liquid. For example, the line in the tube might be at 5 for water, but at 10 for syrup. That means that syrup is twice as dense as water on the baumé scale.

The baumé scale is still used in some industries to measure the density of liquids, especially in the petrochemical and wine-making industries. But for most people, other methods are faster and more accurate.