[Ken] figured out how to get around the $500 price tag of a commercial unit by building this DIY melting point test apparatus. In this image he’s using a thermocouple to monitor the temperature ...

A common technique in organic chemistry is to determine the melting point of a specimen. While commercial options exist, [kymyst] decided to build one with similar (or better) functionality ...

Key fact An impure substance is a type of mixture, so melting points can be used to find out if a substance is pure or impure. Impure substances tend to have a slightly lower melting point than ...