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55-445: The litre ( Commonwealth spelling ) or liter ( American spelling ) (SI symbols L and l , other symbol used: ℓ ) is a metric unit of volume . It is equal to 1 cubic decimetre (dm), 1000 cubic centimetres (cm) or 0.001 cubic metres (m). A cubic decimetre (or litre) occupies a volume of 10 cm × 10 cm × 10 cm (see figure) and is thus equal to one-thousandth of a cubic metre. The original French metric system used

110-531: A juice carton). In 1990, the International Committee for Weights and Measures stated that it was too early to choose a single symbol for the litre. Prior to 1979, the symbol ℓ came into common use in some countries; for example, it was recommended by South African Bureau of Standards publication M33 and Canada in the 1970s. This symbol can still be encountered occasionally in some English-speaking and European countries like Germany, and its use

165-409: A mass of about 1000 kg (1  tonne or megagram). This relationship holds because the gram was originally defined as the mass of 1 mL of water; however, this definition was abandoned in 1799 because the density of water changes with temperature and, very slightly, with pressure. It is now known that the density of water also depends on the isotopic ratios of the oxygen and hydrogen atoms in

220-498: A millilitre or mL) is a unit of the cgs system, which preceded the MKS system , which later evolved into the SI system. The abbreviation "cc" is still commonly used in many fields, including medical dosage and sizing for combustion engine displacement . The microlitre (μL) has been known in the past as the lambda (λ), but this usage is now discouraged. In the medical field the microlitre

275-484: A particular sample. Modern measurements of Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water , which is pure distilled water with an isotopic composition representative of the average of the world's oceans, show that it has a density of 0.999 975 ± 0.000 001  kg/L at its point of maximum density (3.984 °C) under one standard atmosphere (101.325  kPa ) of pressure. The litre, though not an official SI unit, may be used with SI prefixes . The most commonly used derived unit

330-659: A replacement standard, VSMOW2. Published in 1999, it contains a nearly identical isotopic mixture. About 300 liters was prepared from a mixture of distilled waters, from Lake Bracciano in Italy, the Sea of Galilee in Israel, and a well in Egypt, in proportions chosen to reach VSMOW isotopic ratios. The IAEA also published a successor to SLAP, called SLAP2, derived from melted water from four Antarctic drilling sites. Deviations of O, and O in

385-450: A scale such that the δ O of SLAP is −55.5‰ and the δ H of SLAP is −428‰, relative to VSMOW. Therefore, SLAP is defined to contain 94.45% the oxygen-18 concentration and 57.2% the deuterium concentration of VSMOW. Using a scale with two defined samples improves comparison of results between laboratories. In December 1996, because of a dwindling supply of VSMOW, the IAEA decided to create

440-657: A water sample held in the United States' National Bureau of Standards called NBS-1 (sampled from the Potomac River ). In particular, SMOW had the following parameters relative to NBS-1: Later, researchers at the California Institute of Technology defined another abstract reference, also called "SMOW", for oxygen-18 concentrations, such that a sample of Potsdam Sandstone in their possession satisfied δ O sandstone/SMOW = 15.5‰ . To resolve

495-424: Is "a litre of water's a pint and three-quarters"; this is very close, as a litre is about 1.76 imperial pints. A cubic foot has an exact volume of 28.316846592 litres. Originally, the only symbol for the litre was l (lowercase letter L), following the SI convention that only those unit symbols that abbreviate the name of a person start with a capital letter. In many English-speaking countries, however,

550-560: Is exactly 1000 L. From 1901 to 1964, the litre was defined as the volume of one kilogram of pure water at maximum density (+3.98 °C) and standard pressure . The kilogram was in turn specified as the mass of the International Prototype of the Kilogram (a specific platinum/iridium cylinder) and was intended to be of the same mass as the 1 litre of water referred to above. It was subsequently discovered that

605-470: Is in the process of developing) its own standards of usage, often under the influence of local languages. These dialects are sometimes referred to as New Englishes (McArthur, p. 36); most of them inherited non-rhoticity from Southern British English. Several dialects of West African English exist, with a lot of regional variation and some influence from indigenous languages. West African English tends to be syllable-timed , and its phoneme inventory

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660-544: Is increasingly being used in the home as the first language. Small communities of native English speakers can be found in Zimbabwe , Botswana , and Namibia ; the dialects spoken are similar to native South African English . Prior to Togo 's admission at the 2022 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting , Togolese Foreign Minister Robert Dussey said that he expected Commonwealth membership to provide opportunities for Togolese citizens to learn English , and remarked that

715-461: Is much simpler than that of Received Pronunciation ; this sometimes affects mutual intelligibility with native varieties of English. A distinctive North African English , often with significant influences from Bantu languages such as Swahili , is spoken in countries such as Kenya or Tanzania , particularly in Nairobi and other cities where there is an expanding middle class, for whom English

770-416: Is often also used in some calculated measurements, such as density (kg/L), allowing an easy comparison with the density of water. One litre of water has a mass of almost exactly one kilogram when measured at its maximal density, which occurs at about 4 °C. It follows, therefore, that 1000th of a litre, known as one millilitre (1 mL), of water has a mass of about 1 g; 1000 litres of water has

825-404: Is sometimes abbreviated as mcL on test results. In the SI system, apart from prefixes for powers of 1000, use of the "centi" (10), "deci" (10), "deca" (10) and "hecto" (10) prefixes with litres is common. For example, in many European countries, the hectolitre is the typical unit for production and export volumes of beverages (milk, beer, soft drinks, wine, etc.) and for measuring the size of

880-549: Is the cubic metre (m). The spelling used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures is "litre", a spelling which is shared by most English-speaking countries. The spelling "liter" is predominantly used in American English . One litre of liquid water has a mass of almost exactly one kilogram , because the kilogram was originally defined in 1795 as the mass of one cubic decimetre of water at

935-473: Is the millilitre, defined as one-thousandth of a litre, and also often referred to by the SI derived unit name "cubic centimetre". It is a commonly used measure, especially in medicine, cooking and automotive engineering. Other units may be found in the table below, where the more often used terms are in bold. However, some authorities advise against some of them; for example, in the United States, NIST advocates using

990-667: Is ubiquitous in Japan and South Korea. Fonts covering the CJK characters usually include not only the script small ℓ but also four precomposed characters: ㎕, ㎖, ㎗, and ㎘ for the microlitre, millilitre, decilitre and kilolitre to allow correct rendering for vertically written scripts. These have Unicode equivalents for compatibility, which are not recommended for use with new documents: The CJK Compatibility block also includes U+3351 ㍑ SQUARE RITTORU corresponding to リットル rittoru , Japanese for 'litre'. The first name of

1045-647: The CGPM (the standards body that defines the SI) for use with the SI. CGPM defines the litre and its acceptable symbols. A litre is equal in volume to the millistere , an obsolete non-SI metric unit formerly customarily used for dry measure . Litres are most commonly used for items (such as fluids and solids that can be poured) which are measured by the capacity or size of their container, whereas cubic metres (and derived units) are most commonly used for items measured either by their dimensions or their displacements. The litre

1100-593: The Northern Territory Government for measuring water consumption, reservoir capacities and river flows, although cubic metres are also used. Cubic metres are generally used for non-liquid commodities, such as sand and gravel, or storage space. Commonwealth English The use of the English language in current and former Commonwealth countries was largely inherited from British colonisation , with some exceptions. English serves as

1155-512: The SI standard was established, common usage eschews prefixes that are not powers of 1000. For example, in Canada , Australia , and New Zealand , consumer beverages are labelled almost exclusively using litres and millilitres. An exception is in pathology, where for instance blood lead level and blood sugar level may be measured in micrograms/milligrams per decilitre. For larger volumes, kilolitres, megalitres, and gigalitres, have been used by

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1210-458: The 16th CGPM conference, the alternative symbol L (uppercase letter L) was adopted. It also expressed a preference that in the future only one of these two symbols should be retained, but in 1990 said it was still too early to do so. In spoken English, the symbol "mL" (for millilitre) can be pronounced as "mil". This can potentially cause confusion with some other measurement words such as: The abbreviation "cc" (for cubic centimetre , equal to

1265-506: The Commonwealth, although comparatively very few speakers of Indian English are first-language speakers. The same is true of English spoken in other parts of South Asia , e.g. Pakistani English , Sri Lankan English , Bangladeshi English and Myanmar English . South Asian English phonology is highly variable; stress, rhythm and intonation are generally different from those of native varieties. There are also several peculiarities at

1320-414: The IAEA simultaneously published an analogous standard for rain water, Standard Light Antarctic Precipitation (SLAP), and eventually its successor SLAP2. SLAP contains about 5% less oxygen-18 and 42.8% less deuterium than VSMOW. A scale based on VSMOW and SLAP is used to report oxygen-18 and deuterium concentrations. From 2005 until its redefinition in 2019 , the kelvin was specified to be 1/273.16 of

1375-631: The SMOW standard as closely as possible. Craig's measurements found an identical O concentration and a 0.2‰ lower H concentration. The SLAP standard was created from a melted firn sample from Plateau Station in Antarctica. A standard with oxygen-18 and deuterium concentrations between that of VSMOW and SLAP, called Greenland Ice Sheet Precipitation (GISP), was also prepared. The IAEA began distributing samples in 1968, and Gonfiantini (1978) compiled analyses of VSMOW and SLAP from 45 laboratories around

1430-602: The United Kingdom have produced their own English dictionaries and style guides , and may rely on those produced in other countries. Southern Hemisphere native varieties of English began to develop during the 18th century, with the colonisation of Australasia and South Africa. Australian English and New Zealand English are closely related to each other and share some similarities with South African English (though it has unique influences from indigenous African languages, and Dutch influences it inherited along with

1485-630: The absolute concentration in x . In 1961, pursuing a standard for measuring and reporting deuterium and oxygen-18 concentrations, Harmon Craig of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego , California, proposed an abstract water standard. He based the proportions on his measurements of samples taken by Epstein & Mayeda (1953) of ocean waters around the world. Approximating an average of their measurements, Craig defined his "standard mean ocean water" (SMOW) relative to

1540-517: The catch and quotas for fishing boats; decilitres are common in Croatia , Switzerland and Scandinavia and often found in cookbooks, and restaurant and café menus; centilitres indicate the capacity of drinking glasses and of small bottles. In colloquial Dutch in Belgium , a " vijfentwintiger " and a " drieëndertiger " (literally "twenty-fiver" and "thirty-threer") are the common beer glasses,

1595-514: The confusion, November 1966 meeting of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) recommended the preparation of two water isotopic standards: Vienna SMOW (VSMOW; initially just "SMOW" but later disambiguated ) and Standard Light Antarctic Precipitation (SLAP). Craig prepared VSMOW by mixing distilled Pacific Ocean water with small amounts of other waters. VSMOW was intended to match

1650-434: The corresponding bottles mention 25 cL and 33 cL. Bottles may also be 75 cL or half size at 37.5 cL for "artisanal" brews or 70 cL for wines or spirits. Cans come in 25 cL, 33 cL and 50 cL. Similarly, alcohol shots are often marked in cL in restaurant menus, typically 3 cL (1.06 imp fl oz; 1.01 US fl oz). In countries where the metric system was adopted as the official measuring system after

1705-598: The country sought closer ties with the Anglophone world . Hong Kong ceased to be part of the Commonwealth (by virtue of being a British territory) in 1997. Nonetheless, the English language there still enjoys status as an official language. English was introduced into the subcontinent by the British Raj . Among the partitioned post-independent countries, India has the largest English-speaking population in

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1760-402: The cylinder was around 28 parts per million too large and thus, during this time, a litre was about 1.000 028  dm . Additionally, the mass–volume relationship of water (as with any fluid) depends on temperature, pressure, purity and isotopic uniformity. In 1964, the definition relating the litre to mass was superseded by the current one. Although the litre is not an SI unit, it is accepted by

1815-463: The definition of the Kelvin as 1/273.16 of the absolute temperature of the triple point of water. Waters with different isotopic compositions had slightly different triple points. Thus, the International Committee for Weights and Measures specified in 2005 that the definition of the kelvin temperature scale would refer to water with a composition of the nominal specification of VSMOW. The decision

1870-443: The development of Afrikaans from Dutch). Canadian English contains elements of British English and American English , as well as many Canadianisms and some French influences. It is the product of several waves of immigration and settlement, from Britain, Ireland, France, the United States, and around the world, over a period of more than two centuries. Modern Canadian English has taken significant vocabulary and spelling from

1925-562: The language. In Cyprus , it does not have official status but is widely used as a lingua franca . English is spoken as a first or second language in most of the Commonwealth. Written English in the current and former Commonwealth generally favours British English spelling as opposed to American English , with some exceptions, particularly in Canada, where there are strong influences from neighbouring American English. Few Commonwealth countries besides Australia, Canada, South Africa, and

1980-564: The levels of morphology, syntax and usage, some of which can also be found among educated speakers. Southeast Asian English comprises Singapore English , Malaysian English , and Brunei English ; it features some influence from Malay and Chinese languages, as well as Indian English . Other languages: Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water Water samples made up of different isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen have slightly different physical properties. As an extreme example, heavy water , which contains two deuterium ( H) atoms instead of

2035-417: The litre as a base unit . The word litre is derived from an older French unit, the litron , whose name came from Byzantine Greek —where it was a unit of weight, not volume—via Late Medieval Latin, and which equalled approximately 0.831 litres. The litre was also used in several subsequent versions of the metric system and is accepted for use with the SI, although not an SI unit —the SI unit of volume

2090-590: The litre was "cadil"; standards are shown at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris. The litre was introduced in France in 1795 as one of the new "republican units of measurement" and defined as one cubic decimetre . One litre of liquid water has a mass of almost exactly one kilogram , due to the gram being defined in 1795 as one cubic centimetre of water at the temperature of melting ice. The original decimetre length

2145-465: The medium of inter-Commonwealth relations and the language forms part of the common culture of the Commonwealth . Commonwealth English refers to English as practised in the Commonwealth; the term is most often interchangeable with British English , but is also used to distinguish between British English and that in the rest of the Commonwealth. English in the Commonwealth is diverse, and many regions have developed their own local varieties of

2200-494: The millilitre or litre instead of the centilitre. There are two international standard symbols for the litre: L and l. In the United States the former is preferred because of the risk that (in some fonts) the letter l and the digit 1 may be confused. See also Imperial units and US customary units . One litre is slightly larger than a US liquid quart and slightly less than an imperial quart or one US dry quart . A mnemonic for its volume relative to an imperial pint

2255-534: The most common shape of a handwritten Arabic digit 1 is just a vertical stroke ; that is, it lacks the upstroke added in many other cultures. Therefore, the digit "1" may easily be confused with the letter "l" . In some computer typefaces, the two characters are barely distinguishable. As a result, L (uppercase letter L) was adopted by the CIPM as an alternative symbol for litre in 1979. The United States National Institute of Standards and Technology now recommends

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2310-820: The new standards from the old standards are zero within the error of measurement. There is a small but measurable deviation of H concentration in SLAP2 from SLAP— δ H SLAP2/VSMOW is defined to be −427.5‰ instead of −428‰—but not in VSMOW2 from VSMOW. The IAEA recommends that measurements still be reported on the VSMOW–SLAP scale. The older two standards are now kept at the IAEA and no longer sold. All measurements are reported with their standard uncertainty . Measurements of particular combinations of oxygen and hydrogen isotopes are unnecessary because water molecules constantly exchange atoms with each other. Except for tritium, which

2365-475: The ocean do have slightly different isotopic concentrations: δ O values range from –11.35‰ in water off the coast of Greenland to +1.32‰ in the north Atlantic, and δ H concentrations in deep ocean water range from roughly –1.7‰ near Antarctica to +2.2‰ in the Arctic. Variations are much larger in surface water than in deep water. In 1954, the International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM) established

2420-402: The scale at two points. Experimental figures are given below. The concentrations of O, and O are indistinguishable between VSMOW and VSMOW2, and between SLAP and SLAP2. The specification sheet gives the standard errors in these measurements. The concentration of H is unchanged in VSMOW2 as well, but is slightly increased in SLAP2. The IAEA reports: On 6 July 2007, the tritium concentration

2475-963: The shared political and social institutions of Commonwealth countries. Caribbean English is influenced by the English-based Creole varieties spoken, but they are not one and the same. There is a great deal of variation in the way English is spoken, with a "Standard English" at one end of a bipolar linguistic continuum and Creole languages at the other. These dialects have roots in 17th-century British and Irish English , and African languages , plus localised influences from other colonial languages including French, Spanish, and Dutch; unlike most native varieties of English, West Indian dialects often tend to be syllable-timed rather than stress-timed . Second-language varieties of English in Africa and Asia have often undergone " indigenisation "; that is, each English-speaking community has developed (or

2530-449: The temperature of its maximum density (3.98 °C) under a pressure of 1  atm . This made the litre equal to about 1.000 028  dm (earlier reference works usually put it at 1.000 027  dm ). In 1964, at the 12th CGPM conference, the original definition was reverted to, and thus the litre was once again defined in exact relation to the metre, as another name for the cubic decimetre, that is, exactly 1 dm. In 1979, at

2585-415: The temperature of melting ice ( 0 °C ). Subsequent redefinitions of the metre and kilogram mean that this relationship is no longer exact. A litre is a cubic decimetre , which is the volume of a cube 10 centimetres × 10 centimetres × 10 centimetres (1 L ≡ 1 dm ≡ 1000 cm). Hence 1 L ≡ 0.001  m ≡ 1000  cm ; and 1 m (i.e. a cubic metre, which is the SI unit for volume)

2640-487: The temperature of specifically VSMOW at its triple point . Abundances of a particular isotope in a substance are usually given relative to some reference material, as a delta in parts per thousand ( ‰ ) from the reference. For example, the ratio of deuterium ( H) to hydrogen-1 in a substance x may be given as where ( 2 H / 1 H ) x {\displaystyle (^{2}\mathrm {H} /^{1}\mathrm {H} )_{x}} denotes

2695-536: The use of the uppercase letter L, a practice that is also widely followed in Canada and Australia . In these countries, the symbol L is also used with prefixes, as in mL and μL, instead of the traditional ml and μl used in Europe. In the UK and Ireland , as well as the rest of Europe, lowercase l is used with prefixes, though whole litres are often written in full (so, "750 ml" on a wine bottle, but often "1 litre" on

2750-430: The usual, lighter hydrogen-1 ( H), has a melting point of 3.82 °C (38.88 °F) and boiling point of 101.4 °C (214.5 °F). Different rates of evaporation cause water samples from different places in the water cycle to contain slightly different ratios of isotopes. Ocean water (richer in heavy isotopes) and rain water (poorer in heavy isotopes) roughly represent the two extremes found on Earth. With VSMOW,

2805-707: The world. The VSMOW sample was stored in a stainless-steel container under nitrogen and was transferred to glass ampoules in 1977. The deuterium and oxygen-18 concentrations in VSMOW are close to the upper end of naturally occurring materials, and the concentrations in SLAP are close to the lower end. Due to confusion over multiple water standards, the Commission on Isotopic Abundances and Atomic Weights recommended in 1994 that all future isotopic measurements of oxygen-18 ( O) and deuterium ( H) be reported relative to VSMOW, on

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2860-607: Was 3.5 ± 1.0 TU in VSMOW2, and 27.6 ± 1.6 TU in SLAP2. The VSMOW–SLAP scale is recommended by the USGS, IUPAC, and IAEA for measurement of deuterium and O concentrations in any substance. For O, a scale based on Vienna Pee Dee Belemnite can also be used. The physical samples, which are distributed by the IAEA and U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology , are used to calibrate isotope-measuring equipment. Variations in isotopic content are useful in hydrology, meteorology, and oceanography. Different parts of

2915-420: Was 44.344 lignes , which was revised in 1798 to 44.3296 lignes . This made the original litre 1.000 974 of today's cubic decimetre. It was against this litre that the kilogram was constructed. In 1879, the CIPM adopted the definition of the litre, with the symbol l (lowercase letter L). In 1901, at the 3rd CGPM conference, the litre was redefined as the space occupied by 1 kg of pure water at

2970-400: Was determined by the helium gas emitted by radioactive decay, these measurements were taken using mass spectroscopy . Based on the results of Gonfiantini (1978) , the IAEA defined the delta scale with SLAP at −55.5 ‰ for O and −428‰ for H. That is, SLAP was measured to contain approximately 5.55% less oxygen-18 and 42.8% less deuterium than does VSMOW, and these figures were used to anchor

3025-420: Was welcomed in 2007 by Resolution 10 of the 23rd CGPM. The triple point is measured in triple-point cells, where the water is held at its triple point and allowed to reach equilibrium with its surroundings. Using ordinary waters, the range of inter-laboratory measurements of the triple point can be about 250 μK . With VSMOW, the inter-laboratory range of measurements of the triple point is about 50 μK . After

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