Lesson 14 — Activity 3: Capacity
Completion requirements
Lesson 14 — Activity 3: Capacity
Getting Ready
In this activity, you will practise converting measurements of capacity from imperial to metric units.
Think about This:
The main measurement used in the United States for measuring such items as jerry cans, fuel tanks, and large volumes of liquids is gallons they will hold. In Canada, we use litres to measure the same volumes.
Here are the main conversions when converting capacity from imperial measurements to metric measurements. They are:
- US gallons to litres
- Canadian gallons to litres
- quarts to litres
- teaspoons (tsp), tablespoons (tbsp), and cups for smaller capacities used as measuring units in the imperial system
To convert from US gallons to litres, use the formula:
# of US gallons x 3.785 =
For example, if you wanted to know how many litres were in 8 US gallons, you would calculate it this way:
8 x 3.785 = 30.28 litres
To convert from a Canadian gallon to litres, use the formula:
# of Canadian gallons x 4.54 =
For example, if you wanted to know how many litres were in 8 Canadian gallons, you would calculate it this way:
8 x 4.54 = 36.32 litres
Remember, the Canadian gallon is larger than the US gallon.
To convert from quarts to litres, use the formula:
# of quarts x 0.946 =
For example, if you wanted to know how many litres in 5 quarts of oil, you would calculate it this way:
5 x 0.946 = 4.73 litres
We will now look at two of the smaller capacities. 
To convert from teaspoons (tsp) to millilitres, use the formula
# of teaspoons x 5 =
For example, if you wanted to know how many millilitres were in 20 teaspoons, you would calculate it this way:
20 x 5 = 100 ml
To convert tablespoons (tbsp) to millilitres, use the formula
# of tablespoons x 15 =
For example, if you wanted to know how many millilitres were in 34 tablespoons, you would calculate it this way:
34 x 15 = 510 ml
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