Metric Volume

These are the two most common measurements:

A milliliter (that is "milli" and "liter" put together) is a very small amount of liquid. Here is a milliliter of milk in a teaspoon. It doesn't even fill the teaspoon!

If you collect about 20 drops of water, you will have 1 milliliter:

20 drops of water makes about 1 milliliter

And a teaspoon can hold about five milliliters:

1 teaspoon of liquid is about 5 milliliters

Milliliters are often written as ml (for short), so "100 ml" means "100 milliliters".

Liter A liter is just a bunch of milliliters put all together. In fact, 1000 milliliters makes up 1 liter. 1 liter = 1,000 milliliters This jug has exactly 1 liter of water in it. Liters are often written as L (for short), so "3 L" means "3 Liters".

Milk, soda and other drinks are often sold in liters.

The next time you are at the store take a minute and look on the labels to see how many liters (or milliliters) are in each container!

Another way of thinking about a liter is:

• A box that is 0.1 meters (10 cm) on each side,
• One square meter that is millimeter thick.

Other Volume Measurements

You may come across these other volume measurements:

Cubic Meter (m³)

So, a cube that is 1 meter on each side is a cubic meter (m³) ...

... and that is also equal to 1,000 liters.

1 m³ = 1,000 Liters

Megaliters (ML)

A Megaliter is a million liters (1,000,000 L). Useful for measuring large quantities of water, such as in lakes and dams.

Cubic Centimeter (cc)

A Cubic Centimeter (abbreviated cc or cm³) is a cube that is 1 centimeter on each side.

It is one-thousandth of a liter, and one-millionth of a cubic meter. Or to put it another way:

1 m³ = 1,000 L = 1,000,000 cm³
(one cubic meter = a thousand liters = a million cubic centimeters)

More Examples

A liter (L) is:

• a bit more than a quart (US measure)
• about the quantity in a sports drink bottle
• close to the volume of a kilogram of water

A cubic centimeter is about:

• the size of a grape