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Burette vs Pipette: Key Differences and Which to Use
This guide explains the practical difference between a burette and a pipette, two instruments that are often confused because both dispense measured volumes of liquid, but that are built for genuinely different jobs. It breaks down how a burette's stopcock and full-length graduated scale let an operator dispense a variable, watched volume and stop the instant a reaction reaches its endpoint, versus how a pipette (volumetric, graduated or micropipette) is built to transfer one known or pre-set volume in a single action. Rather than presenting the two as competing options, the piece frames them as complementary tools tied to different steps in a procedure: burettes for titration and any reaction where the target volume isn't known in advance, pipettes for sample preparation, dilutions and any step where the volume is already fixed.
