Together with the formula above, the boiling-point elevation can in principle be used to measure the degree of dissociation or the molar mass of the solute. This kind of measurement is called ebullioscopy (Latin-Greek "boiling-viewing"). However, since superheating is difficult to avoid, precise ΔT measurements are difficult to carry out, which was partly overcome by the invention of the Beckmann thermometer. Furthermore, the cryoscopic constant that determines freezing-point depression is larger than the ebullioscopic constant, and since the freezing point is often easier to measure with precision, it is more common to use cryoscopy.