Hi:) just wondering why is the conical flask a preferred apparatus to collect liquid?
( I’m so sorry if it’s a stupid question jskxjs ;-; )

"The best chemist I ever met would run his distillations with tygon tubing. I kid you not. Tygon tubing. Why? Because it’s flexible….that was his answer….it’s flexible. Oh, and it doesn’t break. That was point two.

I had been doing chemistry around 30 years at that point, and I had NEVER seen anyone use anything other than a beautifully crafted glass distillation arm that cost more than my iphone. Cost of Tygon tubing? Probably 47 cents for the amount he uses in a distillation. On top of that, he cleans and re-uses it almost indefinitely. That guy has been using the same piece of tygon tubing for his distillations for at least 2 years now.

I started trying it, and guess what - those distillations (even under vacuum) work just as well as when you use an expensive distillation arm that is crafted to perfection to the specifications of someone who thinks it’s the best because that’s what someone else told him.

And you’re going to sit around worrying if your flask is conical or not? Come on, now. The molecules do not care if the flask is conical or not. Just make it work.

One exception might be if the conical flask is graduated so you can approximate the volume you are collecting and stop at a certain point. Or, if you are distilling water and an organic and need to see if there are multiple phases in your distillate for some reason. That would make sense, I guess."

-David Flosser, Ph.D. Organic Chemistry (2001)

i got this answer from quora