1 Gallons
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In the previous chapter we took a look at volume, what it is and how to calculate it. When dealing with volume we ended up working with units such as cubic feet, cubic inches or cubic meters.
Let’s quickly revisit the definition of volume: Volume is the space which takes up a three dimensional object.
What if I was to talk about volume but using the term capacity instead? Would that change your idea of what volume looks like? What does the term capacity bring to mind when you hear the word?
Capacity is often referred to as the largest amount of something (possibly a solid, liquid or gas) that can be held or contained in a specific volume. You might be thinking that you’ve heard capacity mentioned in other ways such as the amount of people that can fit into a stadium or large venue. You would be correct.
An example would be the capacity of the University of Michigan football team stadium. It was built in 1926 and has a capacity of 107,601 people. You heard that right. It holds over 100,000 people. Crazy! In this case we would use the term capacity to describe the number of people that can fit into the stadium. The stadium is also referred to as “The Big House” for obvious reasons. Although this is not the type of capacity we will be dealing with it’s still a pretty cool ex
ample of another version of capacity.
I’m going to leave it there regarding the difference between volume and capacity but if you would like to learn more check out the following website: Differences Between Volume and Capacity
If you were asked to find the capacity of the gas can to the left what type of units would you be using to give your answer?
For many of us the first thing that might come to mind would be the term gallon or litre and as it turns out these are the exact terms we use when describing capacities. We’ll start with gallons.
Gallons
When you think of gallons what is the first thing that comes to mind? For me its either gasoline that goes into a car or maybe milk. The funny thing about that is we actually measure both of these things in litres here in Canada. Whatever the case I still think of putting gallons of gas into my car rather than litres although in the future I might not be thinking of putting either gallons or litres as we might all be headed towards electric vehicles anyway.
Let’s break it down even further. Are you aware that gallons can be expressed two different ways? There is the imperial Gallon and the U.S. gallon. Here in Canada we generally deal with imperial gallons but as we also deal with the United States when it comes to products such as hot water tanks and boilers we should also be familiar with the U.S. gallon.
Question: Which do you think is bigger, the imperial gallon or the U.S. gallon?
Answer: We’ll answer that in the last part of this section. If you’re curious and can’t wait until the end and want to dive ahead then maybe take a look onlin