5 ms·

Actually, one liter is _exactly_ a cube 10cm x 10cm x 10cm.

• DanBC 13y ago
  I get nervous about precicsion with this because there's the stuff about raising one cubic cm of water by one celcius uses one joule. But there are a bunch of caveats to that and I can't remember them. But thanks for the information!
  • marcosdumay 13y ago
    In fact, raising a gram of water by 1 °C uses one calory, not one Joule. Also, a cubic cm of water weights one gram, and both of those statements are full of caveats and rounding errors. But a liter is only another name for a cubic decimeter. The liter is older, and used to vary from place to place (and even measure area at some places), but now it on the IS.
  • bunderbunder 13y ago
    The caveats don't apply here, because you're talking about comparing units of volume to units of volume. So even though the volume of a given mass of water might be temperature dependent because water expands if you heat it, the the volume of a given volume of water will always be exactly equal to that volume of water. Sort of like how a foot is always exactly 12 inches no matter what the weather report says.