Litres, millilitres and cubic centimetres is in the Primary 5 Volume chapter. The lesson film is the one Mathweave teaches this skill with in Primary 6, and the practice set below is chosen for Primary 5.
Lesson video, with the working
Litres, Millilitres and Cubic Centimetres
2 min 49 s
The film teaches 2 questions in turn. Each question shows first; its working is written as the film explains it.
A kettle holds 3 ℓ 75 ml of water. What is the volume of the water in cubic centimetres?
The volume of the water is 3075 cm³.
Ans: 3075 cm³
Example 1
A jug is marked in litres, with 1 ℓ and 2 ℓ labelled and five equal gaps between them. The water stands one gap above the 1 ℓ mark. How much water is in the jug? Give your answer in cubic centimetres.
There is 1200 cm³ of water in the jug.
Ans: 1200 cm³
How to solve it
Remember that one litre is one thousand millilitres, and 1 millilitre fills 1 cubic centimetre.
Change litres into millilitres first: 3 litres is three thousand millilitres.
Add the two parts: three thousand plus 75 is three thousand and 75 millilitres.
Every millilitre is a cubic centimetre, so the volume is three thousand and 75 cubic centimetres.
On a scale, work out one gap: one thousand shared into 5 gaps is 200 millilitres a gap.
One amount of water. In litres, in millilitres, in cubic centimetres. A litre is a thousand of them.
Practice questions with worked solutions
Question 1 is free to try. The other 13 open in the free trial, each with its full working.
How do you solve P5 litres and cubic centimetres questions?
This page teaches the link between litres, millilitres and cubic centimetres, an outcome under Volume of Cube and Cuboid in Primary 5.
What your child learns here
This page teaches the link between litres, millilitres and cubic centimetres, an outcome under Volume of Cube and Cuboid in Primary 5. It also uses changing litres to millilitres in decimal form, and reading the scale on a beaker or jug.
1 litre is 1000 millilitres, and 1 millilitre fills exactly 1 cubic centimetre, so 1 litre is 1000 cm³.
To change litres to millilitres, multiply by 1000: 1.25 litres is 1250 ml.
To change millilitres or cm³ to litres, divide by 1000: 2500 cm³ is 2.5 litres.
On a scale, find the size of one gap first by sharing the difference between two labelled marks equally.
The capacity of a full rectangular tank in cm³ is length × breadth × height, and the same number gives its capacity in millilitres.
Does the answer make sense?
In Question 1, 2500 cm³ is 2500 ml, which is more than 2 litres (2000 ml) and less than 3 litres (3000 ml). So your child's answer must lie between 2 and 3 litres, and 2.5 litres does; an answer such as 25 or 250 litres means the division by 1000 has gone wrong.
How to practise these questions
Question 1 is free: a fish tank holds 2500 cm³ of water, and your child gives that volume in litres. Basic questions train changing between litres, millilitres and cm³, and reading a beaker whose marks are not all numbered. Intermediate questions add litres and millilitres written together, ordering three volumes, sharing syrup into cups and a tank's capacity in litres. Challenge questions order five mixed volumes, count the bottles filled and what is left, and find the water still needed to fill a tank to the brim. If the units get muddled, open its worked solution and come back to it later from Revision.
Questions parents ask
Why is a millilitre the same as a cubic centimetre? A litre is the space inside a cube 10 cm along each edge, which is 1000 cm³. Sharing that litre into 1000 millilitres makes each millilitre exactly 1 cm³.
Does Primary 5 cover changing cm³ into m³? No. Your child works with cm³ and m³ as units in Primary 5, but changing one into the other is left out of the syllabus. The conversions here are between litres, millilitres and cm³.
How is this page different from litres and millilitres in Decimals? The Decimals chapter changes litres to millilitres and back. This page adds cubic centimetres, so a volume of water can be linked to the size of a box or a tank.
