A test tube, also known as a culture tube or sample tube, is a common piece of laboratory glassware consisting of a finger-like length of glass or clear plastic tubing, open at the top, usually with a rounded U-shaped bottom.
A large test tube designed specifically for boiling liquids is called a boiling tube.
Test tubes are available in a multitude of lengths and widths, typically from 10 to 20 mm wide and 50 to 200 mm long. The top often features a flared lip to aid pouring out the contents; some sources consider that the presence of a lip is what distinguishes a test tube from a culture tube. A test tube has either a flat bottom, a round bottom, or a conical bottom. Some test tubes are made to accept a ground glass stopper or a screw cap. They are often provided with a small ground glass or white glaze area near the top for labeling with a pencil.
Read more about Test Tube: Uses, Manufacture
Famous quotes containing the words test tube, test and/or tube:
“The difference between writing a book and being on television is the difference between conceiving a child and having a baby made in a test tube.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)
“In my utter impotence to test the authenticity of the report of my senses, to know whether the impressions they make on me correspond with outlying objects, what difference does it make, whether Orion is up there in heaven, or some god paints the image in the firmament of the soul?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“One of the great natural phenomena is the way in which a tube of toothpaste suddenly empties itself when it hears that you are planning a trip, so that when you come to pack it is just a twisted shell of its former self, with not even a cubic millimeter left to be squeezed out.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)