The decomposition of capacity measures: the guide to learn the equivalences with the liquid scale. Explanation and exercises.Capacity measurements are given by multiples and submultiples of the litre , which represents the unit of measurement ; these values are used to quantify the size of a liquid, such as water, and are in fact units of volume.
In the case of decomposition , a piece of data must be transformed into all its submultiples. Decomposition means “reducing to one or more smaller measures”. The school problem may require moving from the liter to the milliliter but also from the hectolitre to the centiliter.
Let’s imagine a scheme in which the submultiples are to the left of the liter and the multiples to the right: once the position of each value is clear, we move on to the next step.
In reality, many of the capacitance quantities are no longer officially used in the technical field, but they are still in common use . With this guide we will try to put some order in the quantity passages .
Required materials
- Paper
- Pencil
- Eraser
Multiples of the liter
First of all, let’s start by defining the liter as a unit: the liter corresponds to a volume equal to 1 cubic decimeter, but for historical reasons it has remained a unit of size in its own right. The multiple sizes of the liter (l) are:
- decalitre (from),
- hectolitre (hl),
- kiloliter (kl).
In reality, there are also higher ones, but for large quantities cubic meters are used, by convention. The multiples of the liter are 1 order of magnitude higher than each other, i.e.:
- 1 from = 10 l,
- 1 hl = 100 l,
- 1 kl = 1000 l.
In standard measurement systems, the decalitre and the hectolitre are no longer used, because there is a tendency to use units that are at least 1:1000 in relation to each other for ease of calculation. The hectolitre still maintains a certain importance in the oenological field where it is used for calculations on barrels. However, we will see that for submultiples things are different.
Submultiples of the liter
The litre has the following submultiples:
- deciliter (dl)
- centiliter (cl)
- milliliter (ml)
Even in this case the ratios are always decadal, but in this case obviously decreasing:
- 1 dl = 0.1 l
- 1 cl = 0.01 l
- 1 ml = 0.001 l
In reality, there are also smaller units, but they are of no practical interest and are never used and are no longer in use. Unlike multiples of the liter, submultiples are all used because they are used in everyday fields such as cooking, aesthetics, pharmacy, laboratory chemistry and other similar fields. Officially, centiliter and deciliter should be considered obsolete measures, but in practice many commonly used containers have precisely those capacities.
Calculation example
For convenience, I’ll give a couple of examples of switching between units to help beginners. Suppose we have 56 kl and want to express them in ml .
The calculation goes from kl to ml so the first step is: 56 kl = 56 x 1,000 l.
Now with 56,000 l we have to move on to ml.
1 l = 1,000 ml, 56,000 l = 56,000 x 1,000 ml.
The final result is 56,000,0000 ml = 56 kl.
As a second example I want to report 33c la hl . The direction of travel is reversed, so I have to divide and not multiply as just seen.
33 cl : 100 = 0.33 l (a can of orange soda, for example).
0.33 l : 100 = 0.0033 hl.
However, you may need to convert between liter-based units and foreign units such as gallons. In that case, you should refer to tables commonly found on the Internet.
