Liters to Tons Converter
This versatile converter allows you to work with a wide variety of input and output units, alongside densities conveniently organized based on the types of materials they represent.
Before starting, choose the preferred spelling of your unit of volume between the British or the American spelling.
Once happy with your spelling choice, choose the material you are going to be using. The following categories are offered.
| Source | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Liquids | 100 different choices of items, ranging from food items (cream, milk, jam), cosmetic items (cannabis oil or coconut oil), commonly used chemicals (crude oil, gasoline), and many more. All of the liquids are alphabetically ordered. Some of the liquids have also different densities for different temperatures listed. |
| Materials | 100 different choices. Materials include a variety of solid foodstuffs (corn, almonds, or flour), solid chemical substances (aluminum, concrete, or bentonite), a variety of gasses and chemicals (propane, ether, or arsenic), and a variety of other categories such as construction material or types of waste. Some items are also provided in several versions with some extra attributes such as wet, dry, or shredded. |
| Metals | Over 30 types of metals in a variety of forms and alloys are offered. You can find the density of pure gold, cast iron, or even melted Aluminium. |
| Wood | The converter also offers a choice of 30 different types of wood. Some of the most popular types are included such as oak, pine, or Douglas fir. |
Once you selected the material of your preference, the density of said material will appear in the Density section. The density of your preselected items is always given in kg/m3, however, you can opt to not use any of the provided densities and instead put in a custom one of your own. In such a case, you have an additional choice of inputting your density in all commonly used units, both metric (g/cm3, g/ml, kg/L) and imperial (oz/gal, lb/ft3, lb/in3). When working with imperial values, pay close attention to the US and UK distinctions.
Once the density is set to your liking, choose your input unit. Here you have the choice of inputting a unit of volume (Liter), or a unit of mass (UK, US, or metric tons).
For output, the choice stays the same, although be aware that if you chose volume as input, the mass should be your output and vice versa.
When everything is set, write your input value as a decimal number, choose the number of decimal places you want your result rounded towards, and click on CONVERT.
You will receive your result as a decimal number in the desired output value, alongside some additional information, including the density of the substance of your choice or some additional information about density and temperature.
Converting Volume to Mass Manually
The relationship between the volume (V), mass (M), and density (d) can be determined by the following formula:
d = M \div V
We can rearrange the formula into two other versions, creating one where the mass and another where the volume is the subject of the formula. We get the following two versions:
M = d * V
V = M \div d
The reason for the two rearrangements is, that it is always best to use a formula where our output is the subject, hence we can swap between formulae based on the targeted output.
Let’s have a look at 2 examples that demonstrate both possible situations.
EXAMPLE 1: What is the mass of 30 Liters of maple syrup?
Before even starting any calculations, we must know the density of maple syrup. Our calculator gives us a density of 1,320 kg/m3.
Since our output is mass, we will use the following equation, into which we substitute the density and also the volume of 30 Liters. Before we proceed further, the 30 Liters need to be converted into m3 as 0.03 m3. We will discuss conversions between the units in a later section of the article in more detail.
M = d * V \\= 1,320 * 0.03 \\= 39.6 ~kg.
EXAMPLE 2: What is the volume of 21 kg of bamboo?
Our calculator gives us the density of bamboo as 350 kg/m3. We will be using the formula where volume is the subject, as it is our output. We substitute 350 for density and 21 for mass. For this problem, we do not need to convert anything.
V = M \div d \\= 21 \div 350 \\= 0.06 m^3.
A minor issue we might notice with the manual calculations is, that we are using m3 as values of volume, and kilograms as the unit of mass. Our calculator allows using Liters and tons (metric, US, and UK).
Hence, the next section will demonstrate how to convert between these units.
Converting Tons and Cubic Meters
In order to calculate smoothly with density expressed in kg/m3, it is important to always convert our units into kilograms and m3, before using the formulae.
Converting Liters to Cubic Meters
We might need to convert Liters into cubic meters and vice versa. The relationship between these two units is, that 1 cubic meter consists of 1,000 Liters. Alternatively, 1 liter is equal to 0.001 cubic meters.
This leads to two conversion formulae:
liters = cubic ~meters * 1,000
cubic ~meters = liters * 0.001
EXAMPLE 1: Convert 2.7 m3 into Liters.
By using the first formula, we get the following conversion.
liters = cubic ~meters * 1,000 \\= 2.7 * 1,000 \\= 2,700 ~liters.
EXAMPLE 2: Convert 177 Liters into m3.
We will now apply the second formula.
cubic ~meters = liters * 0.001 \\= 177 * 0.001 \\= 0.177 ~m^3.
Converting Kilograms into Tons
Before we talk about conversion rates and formulae, we must also clarify that there are 3 different tons that we could be referring to:
- metric
- US (also called ‘short’)
- UK (also called ‘long’)
Their relationship to the kilogram is summed up in the table below.
| KILOGRAM VALUE | EQUIVALENT VALUE |
|---|---|
| 907.2 kg | 1 US ton |
| 1,016.1 kg | 1 UK ton |
| 1,000 kg | 1 metric ton |
The conversion rules are simple and do not require formulae. Simply consider these two options:
- Option 1: If converting from kg to tons, divide by the KG VALUE in the table.
- Option 2: If converting from tons to kg, multiply by the KG VALUE in the table.
EXAMPLE 1: Convert 820 kg to US tons. Round the result to 1 decimal place.
820 \div 907.2 = 0.9 ~US ~tons.
EXAMPLE 2: Convert 2.2 UK tons into kilograms. Round the result to 2 decimal places.
2.2 * 1,016.1 = 2,235.42 ~kg.
EXAMPLE 3: Convert 23,490 kg into metric tons. Round the result to 2 decimal places.
23,490 \div 1,000 = 23.49 ~tons.