Functional Skills: Capacity
Functional Skills: Capacity Revision
Capacity
The capacity of a container is the amount of something it can hold.
The difference between capacity and volume is that the capacity of a container is the maximum amount of something it can hold and the volume is just the amount of something in a container. For instance, a beaker with capacity of 750 ml may have some water in it, which has a volume of 400 ml.
Units of Capacity
The most used units for capacity and volume are millilitres (ml) and litres (L).
To change between ml and L, you multiply or divide by 1000.
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Comparing Capacities or Volumes
Questions may ask you to compare capacities or volumes in a real world context.
Example:Â Wyatt wants to buy a paddling pool for his back garden, he wants to fill it up with \boldsymbol{2500} litres of water.
In a shop there are three different paddling pools available to buy:
Paddling pool A has a capacity of \boldsymbol{3000} litres
Paddling pool B has a capacity of \boldsymbol{5000} litres
Paddling pool C has a capacity of \boldsymbol{2000} litres
Which paddling pool would be the most appropriate for Wyatt to buy?
The capacity of paddling pool B is too large, so would be impractical to use.
The capacity of paddling pool C is too small, so all the water wouldn’t fit in the pool.
Paddling pool A appears to be the most appropriate one to buy, as it holds just enough for amount of water Wyatt is going to use.
Note:
Sometimes capacity is measured in pints (pt) or gallons (gal).
An example of this is the capacity of milk is usually measured in pints in shops.
Example 1: Capacity and Volume CalculationsÂ
Leo has two containers, A and B, which both have a capacity of 1.5 L.
Container A is full of water and container B has 200 ml of water in it.
Leo pours half of the water from container A into container B.
Work out the volume in container B, after Leo has poured the water from container A into it, giving your answer in litres.
[2 marks]
First we need to convert the amount of water in container B into litres:
200 ml =0.2 litres
Then calculate what half of 1.5 litres is (volume of water in container A):
1.5\div2=0.75 litres
Finally, calculate the volume in container B:
0.2+0.75=0.95 litres
Example 2: Capacity and Volume CalculationsÂ
In a small pet shop, there are 5 fish tanks.
2 tanks contain \boldsymbol{150} litres of water and 3 tanks contain \boldsymbol{120} litres.
Calculate the total amount of water in the fish tanks.
[2 marks]
2\times150=300 litres
3\times120=360 litres
Then, add them up to find the total amount of water:
300+360=660 litres
Functional Skills: Capacity Example Questions
Question 1:Â How many millilitres are there in 4.8 L?
[1 mark]
4.8\times1000=4800 ml
Question 2:Â Ewan a has full bottle of wine. It has a capacity of 750 ml. He wants to fill as many 100 ml glasses of wine as possible. How many can he fill up completely?
[2 marks]
100 goes into 750 7 times, with 50 remaining. This means Ewan can fill 7 wine glasses.
Question 3: Toby fills a 2 litre beaker, with 760 ml of water. Calculate how much space is left in the beaker.
Give your answer in litres.
[2 marks]
First, convert 760 ml into litres, 760 ml =0.76 litres
Then, subtract this from the original capacity:
2-0.76=1.24 litres of space remaining
Question 4: Victoria is making a large milkshake and is trying to decide which container would be the best to use.
She is going to use 1.5 litres of milk and some flavouring powder.
She has three containers in her kitchen:
Capacity of container 1: 1 litre
Capacity of container 2: 2 litres
Capacity of container 3: 5 litres
[1 mark]Â
Container 1 only has a capacity of 1 litre so would be too small for Victoria to make her milkshake in.
Container 3 has a capacity of 5 litres, so would probably be impractical to use, especially given the capacity of container 2.
Container 2 has a capacity of 2 litres, so seems the most appropriate container to use, given she is going to use 1.5 litres of milk.
Question 5: Alexander is making a bowl of punch for his garden party. The amount of punch in the bowl is 8 litres. He has bought lots of plastic cups, each with a capacity of 400 ml.
How many plastic cups will Alexander be able to fill from his bowl of punch?
[2 marks]
First convert the amount of punch into millilitres:
8 litres =8000 ml
Then divide this value by the capacity of the plastic cups:
8000\div400=20 cups full
Functional Skills: Capacity Worksheet and Example Questions
Capacity EL3
Entry Level 3NewOfficial PFS
