Converting between units of capacity

There are 1000 millilitres in one litre.

• To convert from millilitres to litres divide by 1000.
• To convert from litres to millilitres multiply by 1000.

It is often necessary to work with decimal numbers when measuring.

Example 1

A small soft drink bottle holds 600 mL of soft drink. How many litres is this?

Solution

To convert this to litres, we divide by 1000.

\begin{align}600\ \text{mL}&=\dfrac{600}{1000}\ \text{L}\\\\ &=0.6\ \text{L}\end{align}

Example 2

A large soft drink bottle holds 2 L of soft drink.  How many millilitres does it hold?

Solution

To convert this to millilitres, we multiply by 1000.

\begin{align}2\ \text{L}&=2 ×1000\ \text{mL}\\\\ &=2000\ \text{mL}\end{align}