This third activity will focus on capacity. Capacity is the amount a container can hold. Another unit that is associated with capacity is volume. Volume is how much space an object takes up. In this activity, you will focus on capacity.

You may be quite aware of the measurements of capacity. Here are some examples you may see every day:

Measuring capacity in the metric system is very similar to measuring length or mass. The prefixes remain the same and you move between the units the same way.

The main difference between capacity and mass or length is that you only use two of the units when you talk about capacity in everyday situations.

Look at this chart:

Have you chosen two measurements from the chart that you use on a daily basis? If you chose litre and millilitre, you are correct!

Here, once again, is the metric conversion chart. This time one litre is the basic unit for measuring capacity.

(kilo  — kl; hecto  — hl; deka — dal; litre — l; deci — dl; centi — cl; milli — ml)

It is still 3 steps up to litre from millilitre, so there are 1,000 millilitres in a litre. It is still 3 steps up to kilolitre from litre, so there are 1,000 litres in a kilolitre.

Let's look at an example:

It is 3 steps up from millilitres to litres. Since you are going up the stairs, you will move the decimal place 3 places to the left in your number. Since your number doesn't have a decimal showing, put it at the end of the number and then move it.

2306. becomes 2.306

You have 2.306 litres of milk.

Try this: