How many litres of rain is this?

HOME

Math Central

Quandaries & Queries

Question from Todd, a parent:

I am seeking your help.
I need to know how to work out a question.
If i have 10mls of rain over one square metre how many litres would I
and how do I do the maths for this?
Please help
Kind Regards

Todd,

I think you mean 10 millimetres of rain over 1 square metre.

10 millimetres is a centimetre and there are 100 centimetres in a metre so you have 1 cm of rain over 100 × 100 = 10000 square cms. That is a volume of 1 × 10000 = 10000 cubic centimetres. One cubic centimetre is a millilitre and hence the volume of water is 10000 milliletres. Finally there are 1000 millilitres in a litre so the volume of rain is 10000/1000 = 10 litres.

Penny

Math Central is supported by the University of Regina and The Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences.