Lesson 13 — Activity 3: Capacity


Getting Ready


As you read previously, it is important to be able to convert between metric measurements and imperial units.

Again it is important to know because of the fact that our country interacts so much with the United States. Any product coming into our country from the US will usually have both the imperial measurement and the metric measurement on it. However, when you go to the US, you have to be able to convert from the metric measurements you are used to into the measurements that are given there.


This image shows 4 litres of milk.

How many gallons of milk are shown. (In Canada, this would be labelled as 4 litres. You will work with the formula below.)



There are four main conversions when converting capacity from metric measurements to imperial measurements. They are:


  • millilitres to cups
  • litres to quarts
  • litres to US gallons
  • litres to Canadian gallons



A millilitre is the standard unit in metric for smaller volumes. To convert from millilitres to cups, use the formula:

# millilitres x 0.0042 = cups


For example, if you wanted to know how many cups were in 150 ml of sour cream, you would calculate it this way:

150 x 0.0042 = 0.63 (or ¾ of a cup )

To convert litres to quarts, use the formula:


# litres x 1.057 = quarts


For example, if you wanted to know how many quarts were in 2 litres of milk, you would calculate it this way:

2 x 1.057 = 2.11 quarts


To convert from litres into US gallons, use the formula:

# of litres x 0.264 =


For example, if you wanted to know how many US gallons there were in 50 litres, you would calculate it this way:

50 x 0.264 = 13.2 US gallons

HOWEVER, a Canadian gallon is larger than a US gallon. To convert from litres to Canadian gallons, use the formula:

# of litres x 0.219 =


For example, if you wanted to know how many Canadian gallons there were in 50 litres, you would calculate it this way:

50 x 0.219 = 10.95 Canadian gallons



Now try the milk question from above.


How many U.S. gallons in 4 litres of milk? (Use a calculator to solve.) Image 1


4 x 0.264 = 1.06 gallons



Digging Deeper

Now that you have practised doing conversions, click here for an online conversion calculator. You will be able to do just about any conversion with this calculator.

Images courtesy of www.imagesgoogle.com