How many liters are in 2.10 kiloliter?

1 Answer
Jan 28, 2016

2.10 * 10^3"L"

Explanation:

Before doing any calculations, make sure that you understand what you're looking for here.

The metric system uses prefixes to denote multiples or fractions of basic units.

http://www.lsua.info/MetricSystem/MetricPrefix.html

In order to get from a basic unit to a multiple, you multiply by powers of 10. Likewise, to get from a basic unit to a fraction, you divide by powers of 10.

In your case, the kilo- prefix is used to denote a multiple if the basic unit, which here is the liter. So, in order to go from liters to kiloliters, you must multiply by 10^3.

In essence, this means that you have

"1 kL" = 10^3"L"

Simply put, you need "1000 L" in order to have "1 kL".

This means that you will have

2.10 color(red)(cancel(color(black)("kL"))) * (10^3"L")/(1color(red)(cancel(color(black)("kL")))) = "2100 L"

In order to express this number rounded to three sig figs, you need to use scientific notation. The answer will thus be

"2.10 kL" = color(green)(2.10 * 10^3"L")