A sample of the energy drink High Caff was analysed for the concentration of caffeine it contained. Details on the pack indicated that it should contain 12 mg caffeine per 100 mL. A chemist decided to analyse a sample of the drink, without dilution, by HPLC. 100 mL of 10.0 [tex]mg mL^{-1}[/tex] stock standard solution of caffeine was prepared from pure caffeine tablets. The chemist decided to prepare standards of the following concentration: 5, 10, and 20 mg/100 mL caffeine. Available were 10 mL and 20 mL pipettes and 100 mL and 200 mL volumetric flasks.
a) Describe the dilutions the chemist would need to carry out in order to prepare the standard solutions using the equipments available.
b) The chemist could have used a 1 mL pipette and 100 mL volumetric flask to obtain a 10mg/100mL standard from the stock solution with only one dilution. Why is this a less accurate method?