why do we use glycerol bath instead of water bath in melting pt determination?

if glycerol were no available, what can we use instead? suggest 3 liquids.
1. paraffin oil? right?

1 answer

One reason is that glycerol boils close to 300 C and that is much higher than water. Boiling points would be much hard to obtain if they were above 100 and water was used.
Oil is a good alternative for both melting and boiling point determinations.