Capacity: liters and milliliters
๐ In short
How many cups fill a water bottle? And how many buckets fill a swimming pool? Capacity is how much liquid a container can hold. We measure it in liters and milliliters.
๐คฉ Did you know?
- A liter is 1000 milliliters, which is 4 cups of 250 ml.
- An Olympic swimming pool holds about 2.5 million liters of water.
- A camel can drink more than 100 liters of water in 10 minutes.
- An adult's body holds about 5 liters of blood.
๐ Find out more
๐ Liter
A big water bottle holds one liter or one and a half, and a milk carton one liter. A liter fills a cube with 10 cm sides.
๐ Milliliter
A milliliter is very small: a little medicine spoon holds about 5 ml. One liter is a thousand milliliters, and an ordinary cup is about 250 ml, so a liter fills 4 cups.
๐ก Capacity and shape
A tall, thin container can hold the same amount as a short, wide one! So we don't judge by looking. We pour the liquid into a measuring jug to know the exact amount.
๐ฏ In our lives
A child needs to drink about one and a half liters of water a day. A small car's tank holds about 40 liters of fuel, and an Olympic swimming pool holds 2.5 million liters!
๐งฎ Worked examples
- 1 l = 1000 mlOne liter is a thousand milliliters.
- 4 ร 250 ml = 1000 ml = 1 lFour cups make a liter.
- 1.5 l = 1500 mlOne and a half liters.
๐ Key words
- Capacity
- The amount of liquid a container holds
- Liter
- A unit of capacity, written l
- Measuring jug
- A container with lines and numbers for reading the amount of liquid
๐งช Try it at home
Take a one-liter bottle and count how many cups it fills. Then try cups of different shapes: does the tall cup hold more than the wide one? Measure with the bottle to find out.
๐งฉ Test yourself
1 How many milliliters are in a liter?
2 How many 250 ml cups fill a liter?
3 What do we measure the water in a bottle in?