I’ve experienced some Pyrex measuring cups ageing out and I don’t use those in the microwave anymore. Like metal fatigue, I suppose there can be glass fatigue.
When measuring liquids, the meniscus can face up or down, depending on whether the liquid’s molecules are more attracted to themselves or to the outside material.
Temperature and container material can determine convex or concave. Some mention of forces of adhesion versus cohesion would’ve been nice.
Wiki to the rescue…plus, I ordered some non-borosilicate cups with raised markings rather than painted ones.
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Congrats on the raised markings cups!
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Do share which cups met your requirements
Really good point. The modern quest for culinary precision can get… silly. There are precious few things to cook that fail or are perceptibly worse due to a 5F-degree temperature, a 1-teaspoon volume or a 2-gram weight miss. Yet somehow we’ve become obsessive quants–I guess fine precision makes us feel better.
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Yes, Thank God a full pour of beer domes upward.
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all true. the OP was in regard to markings that were no longer there . . . which does pose an accuracy problem . . .
Sure, I was commenting more on Unserious Eats’ review…
We should collectively design the ideal measuring cup. I’ll go first: Incised (or embedded), darkened markings that can’t wear or break off.
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borosilicate glass cannot be mechanically etched. that creates stress risers and will cause failure.
same with soda lime tempered glass, just not as extreme.
other than hand-blown shapes, beakers/flasks of borosilicate are rotationally blow molded - which precludes embossing or debossing anything on the sides.
our 50 year old Pyrex cups with red markings are all doing just fine.
all the new stuff - and especially anything plastic - not doing fine, at all.
Huh. I’ve etched some myself chemically (hydrofluoric acid, I think).
And CO2 laser followed by KOH wet etching works. See, https://opg.optica.org/ome/fulltext.cfm?uri=ome-11-4-1185&id=449386#:~:text=Matsuo%20et%20al.%20have%20shown,aperture%20(NA)%20of%201.35.
Not sure about how much it weakens. May depend on thickness.
And if you’re really cheap, you can buy a jar of Classico spaghetti sauce, which is packaged in that sort of jar.
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Pretty sure that’s where several of mine came from!
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chemical
mechanical
not the same
The laser mechanically alters the glass as the first step.
Sand etching is mechanical, too.
I’ll also note that a lot of borosilicate labware comes with an etched patch, intended to be written on.
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I can’t tell … is this made of glass?
