Simply put, the capacity is the amount or volume of liquid an item can hold. As you can easily understand, there are many different customary units of capacity.
The Most Common Units Of Capacity
While there are many different units of capacity, the most important ones listed from the smallest to the largest are:
- Fluid ounces
- Cups
- Pints
- Quarts
- Gallons
Whenever you re doing any activities with liquids, you may wonder about how many cups there are in a pint or how many quarts are in a gallon. So, in order to convert these units of capacity, you need to know how much of one unit is equal to another unit.
Discover how to convert 8 oz to ml.
Here are the main equivalences that you need to know so that you can convert each unit into a different one:
As you can easily see, the relationship between cups and fluid ounces is 1 cup = 8 fl oz.
Instead, if you take a closer look at quarts and pints, you can easily see that 1 quart (qt) = 2 pints (pt).
In addition, the relationship between gallon and pints can be expressed by 1 gallon (gal) = 8 pints (pt).
Some Practical Examples
#1: Let’s say that that you want to convert 36 fluid ounces to cups. So, what do you need to do?
The first thing is to determine if you need to either multiply or divide. If you take a closer look at the units, you can easily see that you will need to divide when you are converting a smaller unit into a larger unit. So, in this case:
8 fl oz = 1 cup
So, you’ll need to divide the number of ounces by 8:
36 / 8 = 412
So, you can now say that 326 fluid ounces is equal to 412 cups.
Looking to convert 8 oz to ml?
#2: Let’s now imagine that you want to determine how many ounces there are in 4 quarts or: 4 quarts = ? ounces.
So, again you will need to determine if you need to do a multiplication or a division.
Again, you will need to look at the chart posted above. So, you will need to multiply since you are converting a larger unit into a smaller unit, quarts to ounces. So, considering that:
32 fl oz = 1 qt
You will need to multiply the number of quarts by 32:
32 × 4 = 128
So, you can now say that 4 quarts is equal to 128 fluid ounces.
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#3: Let’s now say that Paul is planning a hiking trip. So, Paul wants to know how many fluid ounces of water he needs to take with him for a 3-day hike. Consider that an average person needs 1 gallon of water per day.
So, basically, you want to convert 3 gallons to fluid ounces.
Again, the first thing you will need to do is to determine if you need to do a multiplication or a division. Just check the table to each which unit is the largest (either gallon or fluid ounce).
Since the gallon is a larger unit than the fluid ounce, you will need to make a multiplication. Considering the equivalence:
1 gallon = 128 fluid ounces
You’ll need the multiplication:
3 × 128 = 384
3 gallons = 384 fluid ounces
So, Paul will need 384 fluid ounces for a 3-day hike.