![cover image](https://wikiwandv2-19431.kxcdn.com/_next/image?url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b9/CubeLitre.svg/langsimple-640px-CubeLitre.svg.png&w=640&q=50)
Litre
unit of volume accepted for use with the SI / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A litre (international spelling) or liter (American spelling) is one of the metric units of volume. It is not a basic SI unit, but it is a supplementary unit.
Litre | |
---|---|
![]() One litre is the volume of a cube with 10 cm sides | |
General information | |
Unit system | Non-SI unit accepted for use with SI |
Unit of | Volume |
Symbol | l[1] or L[1] |
In SI base units: | 1 l = 10−3 m3 |
One litre is the volume of 1000 cubic centimetres, that is a cube of 10 × 10 × 10 centimetres (1000 cm3). One litre of water at 4 °C (277 K; 39 °F) has the mass of exactly one kilogram. This results from the definition given in 1795, where the gram was defined as the weight of one cubic centimetre of melting ice.[2]
Liters are usually utilized to measure the volume of liquids, this is because the density of liquids can vary a lot. However it can be applied to solids as well, for example 1 liter of Iron is around 7.7 kg. The symbol for litre is l or L.[1] The script letter ℓ is also sometimes used.
For smaller volumes, the decilitre is used: 10 dl = one litre.
For smaller volumes, the centilitre is used: 100 cl = one litre.
For smaller volumes, the millilitre is used: 1000 ml = one litre.
The capital letter "L" is preferred by some people as the small "l" can look like the number one "1".