Milliliters are units of measure used to measure volume. One liter equals 1,000 milliliters. The milliliter is based on the liter, with “milli” meaning a thousandth. Milliliters are useful for small measurements in the kitchen and chemistry labs. A liter was once defined as the volume occupied by one kilogram of water, but this definition is no longer used often.
Milliliters are units of measure used to measure the volume, or three-dimensional space, inhabited by an object. One liter equals 1,000 milliliters. The base word liter is often spelled differently based on geography; liter is the preferred spelling in American English, while liter is used more often in European English. While the liter does not technically belong to the International System of Units, it is still commonly used in all branches of science. The standard unit of measure of volume is the cubic metre; one cubic meter equals 1,000 liters and one milliliter equals one cubic centimeter.
The milliliter is based on the liter, just like many other volume measurements. The specific degree of the measurement depends on the prefix in front of “litre”, which simply indicates that the value is a measure of volume. “Milli” means a thousandth, so a milliliter is a thousandth of a litre. This prefix system is used for many different measurements; a millimetre, for example, is one thousandth of a metre. While rarely used, other prefixes can be used to measure different degrees of loudness; a microliter is a thousand times smaller than a millimeter.
A teaspoon contains about five milliliters and a cup contains about 250 milliliters. Milliliters are extremely useful units of small but non-microscopic measurements; many ingredients in the kitchen are measured in milliliters as are many substances in chemistry labs. Milliliters are generally not useful when measuring any object or substance that has a volume greater than a liter; it is much more difficult to understand the space occupied by 2,500 milliliters than to understand the space occupied by two and a half liters.
At one point, a liter was defined as the volume occupied by one kilogram of water. This definition is no longer used often, as the volume occupied by water varies greatly based on various factors such as temperature. There is, however, still a close relationship between the two measurement systems; mass can be closely approximated by volume. A liter of water, in fact, has a mass almost equal to a kilogram. Similarly, simple conversions reveal that one milliliter of water has a mass approximately equal to one gram.
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