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Connect volume and capacity and their units of measurement (ACMMG138)

Convert between common metric units of length, mass and capacity (ACMMG136)

Source: Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA)

Units for measuring capacity

When we measure liquids we use millilitres and litres. The amount of liquid that a container can hold is its capacity.

For large volumes of water we use megalitres. An Olympic-sized swimming pool holds 2.5 megalitres of water.

We can convert from one unit of capacity measurement to the other:

\begin{align}&1000\ \text{millilitres}=1\ \text{litre}&\ \text{can be shortened to}\ &\hspace{20px}1000\ \text{mL}=1\ \text{L}\\\\ &1\ 000\ 000\ \text{litres}=1\ \text{megalitre}&\text{can be shortened to}\ & \hspace{20px}1\ 000\ 000\ \text{L}=1\ \text{ML}\end{align}