text: Gravimetric analysis usually only provides for the analysis of a single element, or a limited group of elements, at a time. Comparing modern dynamic flash combustion coupled with gas chromatography  with traditional combustion analysis will show that the former is both faster and allows for simultaneous determination of multiple elements while traditional determination allowed only for the determination of carbon and hydrogen. Methods are often convoluted and a slight mis-step in a procedure can often mean disaster for the analysis (colloid formation in precipitation gravimetry, for example). Compare this with hardy methods such as spectrophotometry and one will find that analysis by these methods is much more efficient.